Human 101
by notcreativeenoughtomakeone
Summary: The battle with xana has come to a stand still and ends in a truce. Using the groups dna codes, xana creates a body and materializes as a human with no strings attached. Now the only problem is learning the stuff about humans you can't program.
1. Peace Offering

**_I've been working on this story since I finished As you Wish around three years ago. The concept of xana becoming human to end the fight has always been an interesting concept to me, and when I wrote it as a sub plot years ago, I always wanted it to be it's own story. I've been through three drafts of this, and on two sides of the fence. Does xana become male or female. After I wrote them both, I decided which one I liked better, and I had some people review upon it and give me their insight. Almost everyone chose the same gender, so you'll find out which one won next chapter._**

**_This is the first story I've published in over TWO YEARS and I'm pretty excited about getting back on the site and letting people know that I'm not dead(yes I've been asked if I was). Sometime this week I'll also be finishing Timeline finally as well as working on this a little more( a few plot holes need repairing). I went from full time writer, no show for close to a year, and I'm back. Sorry I was gone if anyone cared about me enough to think,'what happened to notcreativeenoughtomakeone? haven't read anything in a while' (all four of you know who you are)._**

**_Years ago I said I was working on a spin off for As you Wish. Some of you wanted to read it, well, As you wish._**

* * *

Jeremie looked at the screen in the lab as information passed by. Everyone else was just waiting for something to do. Aelita looked over Jeremie's shoulder and looked at what he was looking at. Odd was watching from the side, to see if at least once he could hope to understand what all of that zeros and ones meant. Again, he hadn't a clue.

Within the last month, it had been a non stop fight with xana. Everyone was exhausted because the attacks were daily now. They had to keep on their toes just to stay alive. Around every corner was another attack. In the end, after nearly a month of non stop fighting, they won.

Xana was placed back into the computer. During the fight, xana destroyed the switch, so they couldn't turn it off. So in a since, no one had really won. Though xana's attacks were much more limited, it was still a tense situation.

Jeremie had spent the last three days searching for a way to turn the system off from within. Nothing was coming up. The only real way to turn it off was to go inside, but that would mean someone had to sacrifice themself. They would turn it off, and die with the computer. They all agreed, they started this together, they end it together.

* * *

Aelita watched Jeremie work and sighed. He was working so hard but it was amounting to nothing but frustration.

" Jeremie, you need a break," Aelita said to him. Jeremie stopped typing and took a breath. He wanted one, but he just couldn't tear his focus away.

" I know, but last night I broke some of the code, check this out," Jeremie said to everyone. The others gathered around the computer and he showed them what he found.

" It appears that xana is trying to do something. It's the reason he hasn't attacked since we got him back in," Jeremie said to everyone.

" What is he doing?" Yumi asked trying to make heads or tails of the screen. Again, she couldn't.

" To be honest, I don't know. What I've managed to work out is that it has something to do with the scanners and a virtual dna code. That's all I managed to dig up."

" Do you think he's trying to materialize himself?" Aelita asked. Jeremie looked back at the screen and thought.

" It's possible," Jeremie said then looked back at Aelita, " But I still need to dig more into it." Then he faced the screen again and saw something on it that wasn't there before.

" **She's right,**" was written on the screen. Jeremie scratched his head in puzzlement.

" She's right?" He asked aloud. The comment vanished and new one appeared.

" **That's what I said,**" Jeremie looked back at everyone. They all shrugged.

" Who are you?" Jeremie asked aloud, to see if the computer was listening.

" **Xana,"** appeared on the screen a second later. Everyone looked at each other again. The message vanished and another appeared.

" **I've been trying to materialize myself. To be honest, I'm tired of our constant feuding. So I offer you an option. End this fight by helping me, or the wheels keep turning till one or all of us is dead.**"

" Why would we help you?" Aelita asked aloud. The message deleted itself and the answer appeared.

" **To end the fight. I'm not to thrilled accepting help let alone asking for it. But I suppose now that both of us are desperate for resolution, I get what I want you get what you want.**"

" What do you want?" Odd asked. The message vanished and Odd waited for it to pop back.

" **I have everything ready to materialize myself, except for a complete dna code. If I had that, I could attach it to myself and materialize myself onto earth similar to the way Aelita was.**"

Again, everyone looked at each other. Jeremie looked back at the screen and asked, " Why do you need us?"

" **I need a sample of dna from two of you. If I have two, I can mix and match traits to create myself a body and materialize myself on earth.**"

" What makes you think we'll help you?" Ulrich asked. The screen went blank, then text filled the screen.

" **I know our history isn't good. Several times I've tried to kill all of you, taking Aelita's memory. Using your friends and classmates as pawns. But let me tell you that my intentions for this is completely noble. All I want is to be free from this cell, and all you want is to not have to fight anymore. So you help me, and I leave you alone for the rest of your life.**"

" Can we have time to think about it?" Jeremie asked.

" **Of course, take your time.**"

* * *

Everyone left the lab and headed back to the school. They all sat around Ulrich and Odd's dorm trying to figure this out. Odd was on his bed petting Kiwi, Aelita sat on the ground next to the bed. Jeremie sat on Ulrich's desk chair and Ulrich and Yumi sat on his bed. Just not next to each other.

" Should we really help him?" Odd asked, looking up from his dog. Ulrich and Yumi shrugged, and Jeremie didn't make any remark or gesture. Aelita looked up at him and began to think.

" I think we should," Aelita said to them. Jeremie's mind clicked back into the room and he looked at her.

" You sure?" Jeremie asked. " It is xana we're talking about."

" I know that Jeremie. But, what do we have to lose?" Aelita asked him.

" Our lives," Ulrich answered.

" He has a point. If he gets unhinged from the computer then he'll just kill us in our sleep," Yumi said to them. Jeremie sighed then looked back at Aelita.

" Maybe xana is just as desperate as us. His time outside of the computer gave him more information on actual human nature. Maybe he learned something new. Desperation," Jeremie said then scanned the room waiting for someone to input something.

" I agree," Aelita said to him. Yumi and Ulrich shook their heads and sighed in unison.

" How about this, a vote," Jeremie said. " All in favor of freeing xana, raise a hand." Jeremie and Aelita put their hands up. Odd shrugged then put his hand up. " All against?" Yumi and Ulrich didn't even bother to raise their hands.

" Settled, we get him out," Aelita said then smiled.

" Fine. But if we die, your fault," Ulrich said, pointing at Aelita and Jeremie.

* * *

Jeremie reached into his hair and pulled out a single strand from it. Aelita did the same and so did everyone else. They then put it into the scanner then climbed back into the main part of the lab. Uploading the data Jeremie sent it to xana who used it for his virtual dna. From that he would program it to give him actual dna. Similar to a polymorphic clone, except for the part he was completely and utterly powerless. A human.

Xana went silent for hours as they sat around waiting for him to come back on. Odd threw a tennis ball against the wall while he waited. The echoing sound of the ball hitting the wall, floor then the palm of his hand was getting on everyone's nerves. After the thirtieth throw Aelita stepped in front of him and grabbed the ball. Then she threw it down the elevator shaft.

" Hey," Odd said to her. The sound of the ball hitting the bottom echoed back up and Aelita smiled at him. Odd shook his head then sat on the ground and waitied. Suddenly Jeremie saw another message appear.

" **If you don't trust me, check over the programming. I'm a normal human with no strings attached. I took the best qualities you have to offer to make my body. You'll see soon enough.**"

Another screen appeared that showed a loading bar that was going up at one percent every ten seconds. Odd looked over his shoulder and groaned. In a minute it was at six percent and still slowly rising. Jeremie leaned into the chair more and watched as things appeared.

" Why is it taking so long?" Odd asked Jeremie.

" He's creating himself an entirely new body from scratch Odd. It'll take awhile. I'm actually surprised it's going as fast as it is," Jeremie said then looked back at the screen.

" That's fast?" Ulrich asked. Jeremie nodded without looking at them. Odd and Ulrich shrugged then sat on the ground.

Nearly twenty minutes later a small sound appeared from the screen and Jeremie nodded his head. Checking everything over once more he left his chair then opened the hatch to the scanner room. Everyone looked over to him and he nodded.

" Let's go say hi," Jeremie said to them and started down first. Everyone else walked to the hatch and went down after him.

* * *

**_Earlier this month I was going through my computer, reading some old stories when I read my deleted scenes chapter for As you Wish. That's when I remembered I was working on something years ago. This. R&R_**


	2. First Day Jitters

**_Since it's told in the chapter immediately(Paragraph 2), Xana is a girl. Like I said, I wrote this story twice, once with a male, and then a female. The female one in others and mine opinion. Mainly to me because, I had already turned xana into a male(As you Wish), wanted to do something different. Not to mention, I noticed I tend to focus on the male charactors and their problems with female charactors. Never female characters and their problems with male characters. So, xana as a girl, sounds like a japanese horror movie. If you get an email that says seven days, copy this and send it to someone else(JK). _**

**_That's also one of the reasons I've been working on this for so long. I wrote it twice. Depending on how well it does or how much people like it, I might post the male xana after this. Problem is, somethings that happen are almost exactly the same, same scenario, different players. One reason I might not. It'll be a lot of editing and changing to make the male different than the female cause when we get down to it, they really are the same person after all. _**

**_So, let's get started..._**

* * *

The gang stood around the scanner that was humming to life in front of them. They were ready for what ever would come out of it. After what seemed to be an eternity the doors opened and mist poured out that began to slowly disperse. Nothing seemed to be in the scanner at first glance, but once the mist finally left the scanner entirely, everyone looked down to the last thing they thought they'd see. A kid, a child who appeared only a few years their junior.

"He..she.. made herself into a kid?" Odd asked aloud immediately.

"Is she awake?" Aelita asked and walked over and crouched down next to him and nudged her arm.

"Doesn't look like she's even alive," Yumi said and looked down as the girl began to twitch.

"She's just asleep, apparently being materialized at her age is exhausting," Aelita said and stood up.

"At least she had the decency to materialize clothes," Odd said and looked over at Ulrich, "Help me pick her up."

"I am not touching her," Ulrich said and Odd groaned and did it himself. Odd carried her out of the scanner and toward the elevator to lay her down somewhere a little more comfortable.

When the elevator docked Odd placed er on the ground in the lab, and then took off his sweat shirt so he could rest her head on something softer than the floor.

"Now what, we have an unconscious orphan in the lab," Ulrich said and sat against the wall.

"Why a kid? Why didn't she skip the boring stuff and go straight to adulthood? And why a girl now that were on the subject" Odd asked and everyone looked at each other for an answer.

"What's wrong with being a girl?" Yumi asked in defense of her gender.

"Nothing," Odd said quickly.

"Yeah Odd, after all girls are biologically superior," Aelita said.

"We'll ask 'her' when 'she' wakes up," Jeremie said and looked down at her.

* * *

Six hours later Yumi was leaning her head on Ulrich's shoulder so they could both sleep while waiting for Xana for wake up. Jeremie was laying against the scanner and Odd was curled up in the corner. The alarm on Ulrich's watch went to off to warn them that school would be starting in an hour and he slowly opened his eyes.

"Already, is she up..." Ulrich asked and noticed Aelita and Xana were missing "..yet." He panned his eyes around the entire room and saw that Aelita was gone, and so was the kid.

"Yumi wake up," Ulrich said and nudged her off of his shoulder and stood up, "Jeremie, Odd get up, they're gone!"

"Huh?" Jeremie asked and Odd shot up.

"What's going on?" Odd asked.

"I knew it, she took Aelita and she's gone now. I knew it was a trick and you idiots voted in it's favor, we need to get to the scanners, Jeremie boot up," Ulrich said and called the elevator.

"That's weird," Yumi said as she listened to the elevator approaching.

"What's weird?" Odd asked.

"The elator is coming down," Ulrich answered when he noticed, "Jeremie, pull up the video feed for the factor main floor."

"Don't need to, Aelita left me a note. "_I'm not dead, Danielle(Xana) wanted to play for the first time, so I'm teaching her tag upstairs. Her name is Danielle by the way, she figured if she wanted to change gender during the process, having a bigender name would be easier. Bigender, like Jamie, Danny, Alex, Sam. See you upstairs, love Aelita."_

_"_Let's make sure, pull up the feed," Yumi said and Jeremie pulled up the feed and they saw Aelita running away from Danielle in the lap, just like they said she would be. Aelita ran around a beam, then back around, and around again.

"Looks like tag to me," Yumi said and Odd's ears perked up.

"Tag, oh hurry up elevator, I wanna play," Odd said and looked at the doors open, "Come on."

"Hurry up Jeremie, looks like fun," Yumi said and ran into the elevator with Odd. Jeremie walked in too and Ulrich stood there speechless. "Come on Ulrich."

"Sure, why not," Ulrich said sarcastically, "Top floor, lobby, sewer entrance, and the ring girl."

"Drop it," Yumi said and pressed the button.

* * *

The elevator docked and everyone heard the sound of two girls laughing. Danielle had caught Aelita and now Aelita was chasing Danielle who couldn't run very well yet. She was running with a sort of limp, as if on of her legs had fallen sleep and blood hadn't circulated yet.

"Morning guys, she's pretty energetic, just like a..well a kid," Aelita said and watched Danielle run over and fall down. Danielle pulled herself to her knees as the girls and Odd came running over to check on her. A few tears were visible in her eyes as she looked at her palms at knees.

"That hurt, that actually hurt," Danielle said in a voice that fit her appearance while rubbing her knees, "I'm bleeding," Danielle said Aelita who leaned down and checked her injuries.

"A little, just a scrape," Aelita said and smiled.

"Oh Odd, just remembered, five bucks," Ulrich said to Odd.

"Why?" Odd asked.

"Her hair is brown, you said it'd be blond," Ulrich said and Odd groaned, "Pay up."

"Can I ask you question?" Yumi asked Danielle who nodded, "Why a girl, or a kid for that matter?"

"Child was an easy choice, I don't want to miss childhood. And a girl well, because they're biologically superior," Xana said and Aelita laughed.

"Told you," Aelita said to Odd.

"What about school and that stuff?" Jeremie asked.

"I worked that out before I left. I enrolled at Kadic with a school history, permanent record, new identy, and fake parents that don't exist, like they do anyway. And I pulled relatively small funds out of a lot banks world wide. Adding it all up it's almost a million. The small funds was so they wouldn't notice it. Then I transferred the funds into an account here. I have school, parents, and funding."

"You have it all planned don't you?" Jeremie asked.

"Just that part. Everything else is left to chance, and that's beauty of it all. I start Kadic in three days. I can still barely walk in a straight line I want to learn the mechanics of moving first," Danielle said with a smile and stood up.

"Good idea, still wanna play?" Aelita asked and Danielle smiled and nodded, "Well, you're it," Aelita said and patted Danielle's head and ran off, as did Jeremie, Odd, and Yumi. Ulrich stood with his hands in his pockets. Danielle ran over and reached out to touched him, thinking he was playing.

"You're it," Danielle said with a smile and Ulrich slapped her hand away before it touched him.

"Ulrich!" Aelita shouted as Odd shook his head.

"I'm not it, you're an 'it'," Ulrich said and began to walk to the stairs to leave, "We have school, remember."

"In an hour Ulrich," Yumi said and Ulrich kept walking.

"Did I do something wrong, why did he hit me?" Danielle asked and Aelita crouched down next to her.

"You did nothing wrong, he just isn't ready to accept you, but I'm glad to say I voted in your favor," Aelita said with a smile.

"Me to," Odd said and Yumi sighed.

"I didn't, but I'm glad I was outvoted," Yumi said and Odd nodded.

"I'd take it, he didn't vote for me," Danielle said and they all shook their heads.

"We'll deal with him, don't worry," Yumi said to reassure Danielle who thanked them all and touched Odd's arm.

"You're it," Danielle said and ran away.

* * *

Hiroki was sitting in his biology class looking out of the window while some of the other students were in their lunch hour. He was hungry so the thought of people eating when he wasn't just made his stomach gurgle. Then he heard a knock on the door and turned his head to see the teacher walk over and answer it. She smiled at the principle as someone walked in and stood in front of the class.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to the newest student at Kadic," the teacher said and everyone's eyes were on a girl standing in front of the class.

The girl was a few inches less than five feet. Her hair was straight, brown, reached her shoulder blades and was tied into a pony tail. She was pale like she wasn't in the sun much, but her cheeks were pink. She had a few freckles on both sides of her small nose that was nestled between her eyes. Her eyes where strange, the left was blue, the right was green, but it was hard to notice that behind her thin glasses. She was wearing a long sleeved blue shirt with no logo on it, jeans with a skirt and a pair of black and white converse. Over her shoulder was a messenger bag filled with books and basic supplies for school.

"This is Danielle Grey, she just transferred from Paris. I hope everyone will make her feel welcome. Do you want to tell everyone a little about yourself?" The teacher asked.

"I.." Danielle started before she felt like she couldn't talk. Her hand was shaking and she didn't know why. Everyone was looking at her. She looked at her feet and when she tried to gesture with the arm that the bag was hanging off of, the bag fell and a few kids snickered in the back ground. She could have sworn someone said "spaz alert".

"It's okay, just have a seat.." the teacher said while looking for an opening, "The seat next to Hiroki is open."

"Where?" Danielle asked and looked around.

"Hiroki, tell her who you are," the teacher said and Hiroki waved and Danielle picked up her bag and slowly walked through the class and sat at the table with Hiroki. She placed her bag next to her chair and looked up again and saw that everyone was still looking at her. She looked away and noticed she was still shaking.

"Welcome to Kadic," Hiroki said and Danielle looked over at him.

"Thanks," she timidly said and the teacher continued.

* * *

The space in Aelita's room had been changed around so another bed could be put in and another wardrobe and desk. Danielle had moved all of her stuff in already. She used some of the money to buy clothes and supplies, and took Yumi up on her offer to have some of her old clothes. Aelita liked having the space to herself but a roommate didn't bother her that much.

They had both changed into pajamas, Aelita in her long shirt and Danielle in shorts and a shirt. Aelita was still washing up for the night and Danielle sat on her bed with her knees to her chest thinking about her day. Aelita came back in and sat down next to her, pulling the hair tie out and letting her hair tangle down.

"So, how was your first day?" Aelita asked and Danielle sighed on her knees.

"I don't know, but I know not good," she said.

"Why what happened?" Aelita asked.

"My first class the teacher asked me to introduce myself and I... I don't know, I couldn't talk. It was like I was choking but I could still breathe. My hands wouldn't stop shaking, and then I dropped my bag and people laughed at me, and I didn't want to look at anyone because they were just staring at me. All of them. Is that...normal?" Danielle asked, in desperate need of guidance at the moment.

"Yes," Aelita said and Danielle looked over at her, "It's called, you were nervous. It's like a mild version of fear. And when you dropped your bag and didn't want to look at anyone because they were laughing, that's called embarrassment. You don't know what to think because you haven't felt those yet. Not all emotions are as enjoyable as laughter and fun. It can get tough to process them all. And there are a lot more."

"How many?" Danielle asked.

"A lot," Aelita said and walked over to her side of the room, "Too many to list, and too complex to explain."

"Don't even get me started on gym class then," Danielle said and Aelita smiled.

"What happened in gym?" Aelita asked.

"I said don't get me started," Danielle said back.

"You brought it up, what happened?" Aelita asked.

"I walked into the boys locker room, stepped on my shoe laces, three times. Struck out in kick ball, apparently that's pretty bad I was told. Missed a pop fly catch because it hit my head, luckily the center fielder caught the rebound so I was forgiven. And a couple of girls in the locker room were laughing at me, I don't know why, but it had something to do with mosquito bites."

"No wonder you said don't ask. Even Jeremie gets on first in kick ball," Aelita said and laughed, "But, let's talk about that mosquito bite comment."

* * *

**_Xana as a male is Jeremie's roommate. First person to guess who says hi to Zack(Male xana, homage to As You Wish) in his biology class first, I'll PM you with a sneak preview of next chapter. Nice to be back._**


	3. Second Day Impression

**_It's nice being occupied again to say the least. Ever since I got a 360 for Christmas, well to say the least that machine is a hell of time suck. Writing is a time suck too, it's three in the afternoon when you start typing and when you save it's a little after seven, and it only seemed you were writing for half an hour. _**

**_Anyway, chapter 3._**

* * *

Dinner at Yumi's house was quiet for the most part. Their father was talking about his day at work while their mom just listened, nodded, and commented occasionally. Ten minutes into dinner they looked to the kids to talk about their day.

"So Yumi how was school?" Mrs. Ishiyama asked.

"Nothing to report really, just an average day," Yumi said and their mother nodded.

"Hiroki?" Mrs. Ishiyama asked.

"Not much, just some weird girl started today," he said without looking up.

"Weird, how so?" Mr. Ishiyama asked.

"Well, she didn't talk much, she was clumsy, and she sits next to me in biology," Hiroki said and swirled his chop sticks through his rice.

"Do you think she's cute?" Yumi asked with a grin.

"What, no she's just weird," Hiroki said too fast. Yumi and her mother look at each other and nodded.

"Weird in a cute way? Sounds like she was just nervous to me,"Yumi said and her mother nodded.

"Alright I'll admit, when she took off her glasses to rub her eyes, she was actually..." Hiroki started to say, because he didn't want Yumi to be right, "Cute."

"Be nice to her," Mrs. Ishiyama said.

"I was, I was the only one who said hi," Hiroki said and Yumi smiled.

"What's her name?" Yumi asked.

"Danielle," Hiroki answered and looked down again.

"I know her, your grade, brown hair," Yumi said and Hiroki nodded, "She's Aelita's roommate."

"Really?" Hiroki asked.

"Yeah, why do you want me to hook you up?" Yumi asked and Hiroki looked down.

"No," Hiroki said and Yumi smile.

"I'll put in a good word for you."

* * *

"I'm actually beginning to wish I became a male instead," Danielle said to Aelita while they were getting dressed in their room.

"Why?" Aelita asked.

"Being a girl, with other girls, it's...ruthless to say the least. I have to dress right, look good, hair a certain way, nails a certain color, does the belt match the purse, and apparently fight for male attention based upon these," Danielle said and gestured toward her chest.

"Some girls really have it easy when it comes to that. Yumi is getting there, Sissi is there, and I don't really care that much. But what're you, eleven, twelve, you still have plenty of time,"Aelita said and Danielle just looked at her shoes.

"I guess, but hey, least I don't have to wear a bra," Danielle said and Aelita laughed.

"In a couple of years, you're going to wonder how you ever survived without them," Aelita said and made her chest bounce.

"Show off," Danielle said as they left the room and locked the door.

"If you have it, show it off," Aelita said and walked down the hall. Danielle just stood next to the door for a moment and shook her head.

"Should have been a male, I knew it since the moment I landed," Danielle said and ran after Aelita.

* * *

The entire group plus one meet in the quad fifteen minutes later. Ulrich and Odd were already on the bench with coffee and Jeremie appeared next. Yumi showed up not to long after him and now they were just waiting for Aelita and Danielle.

"What's taking them?" Yumi asked and looked over at the doors to the dorms to see if they were coming out yet.

"Maybe they over slept," Jeremie suggested.

"I wonder how Danny's first day was," Odd said and Ulrich looked over at him.

"Why did you call her Danny?" Ulrich asked.

"Because, that's her name," Odd said and Ulrich sighed.

"She may have you fooled, but no matter how long she's here for, she's just Xana to me. When she chose to be female, suddenly Xana sounded feminine. Say it slowly, sounds girly," Ulrich said and Jeremie said it slowly.

"I can hear it actually, weird," Jeremie said and shook his head, "Speak of the devil."

"Devil being the operative word," Ulrich responded.

"Zip it," Odd said.

Aelita opened the door to the dorms and held it open for Danielle who thanked her and kept moving out. Yumi waved and Aelita waved back and they stopped at the bench.

"Morning Danny, how was your first day?" Odd asked and Danielle just shrugged a little.

"I was really nervous, barely talked at all. I wanted to talk, but I couldn't, you know. I didn't make any friends," Danielle said and looked at her shoes.

"You have plenty of time to make friends," Jeremie said with a smile, and Yumi and Aelita nodded.

"Aelita, can I have a word?" Yumi asked and Aelita nodded and they walked out of earshot.

"What're they talking about?" Odd asked.

"How should I know?" Ulrich answered.

"This is really cool, but you can't tell them, or Danielle, promise," Yumi said and Aelita nodded.

"Promise yeah, what's so cool?" Aelita asked with a smile.

"I think my brother likes Danielle," Yumi said and Aelita giggled and the boys looked over, making her quiet down.

"She didn't mention anything about Hiroki, but Hiroki mentioned her?" Aelita asked.

"At dinner, he said she was weird, but I managed to make him admit he thinks she's weird in a cute way. After that, he was blushing all night, didn't say a word. It was so cute."

"Should I try squeezing a confession out of her?" Aelita asked.

"No, she'll ask, she wouldn't understand what was going on. She'd have to ask us what to do or what it is. If she likes a boy, she'll let us know. Then again, how do we know she's even straight?" Yumi asked.

"That's weird, she's scared," Aelita said and Yumi looked around and saw Ulrich glaring at Danielle who was looking at her shoes evading everyone's eyes.

"Ulrich doesn't trust her yet," Yumi said and looked back at Aelita, "About Hiroki though, not a word to her, or the guys, they'll blow his cover."

"I promise, hey speaking of your brother," Aelita said as Hiroki was seen walking his friends heading into the cafeteria. Danielle looked at the girls and saw they were looking at someone, so she looked in the direction of their gaze and saw Hiroki. She stared at him for as he walked and when he felt someone was looking at him, he turned his head toward Danielle. She quickly looked away and down, so no one would see her blushing.

Yumi and Aelita looked at each other and smiled. Then at the same time said, "She likes him."

* * *

Lunch was officially Danielle's least favorite class. Unlike in gym when she had to be picked, or in class where she was supposed to find a desk or table, no one had to let her sit at their lunch table. She grabbed her tray from the line, filled up and decided it would be best to eat outside under a tree. As she walked back toward the door everyone seemed to be following her with their eyes. That only made her walk faster.

Danielle found a tree and placed her tray next to her and ate while looked around the quad. Some kids were playing soccer on the field. Other were playing frisbee, some where just sitting around socializing. A few kids were sitting on the benches reading text books or magazines. And she was the new girl who ate lunch alone, like it or not.

After five minutes she opened her milk carton and began to drink when someone said hi to her. She coughed some of it out and spilled half of the carton on her shirt and skirt.

"I really liked this shirt," Danielle said as she placed the carton back on the tray and examined the damage, "Perfect," she said and looked up at who had said hi to her. Hiroki was standing over her while leaning against the tree with his hands in his pockets.

"Sorry, I'll go grab some napkins," Hiroki said and began to walk back toward the cafeteria.

"No it's okay I'll get..." Danielle said before Hiroki turned around and walked backwards.

"It was my fault, don't worry I'll be right back," Hiroki said and started to jog.

"Thanks," Danielle shouted and looked down at the mess, "I really liked this shirt," She said and sighed.

Hiroki came back in less than a minute with a handful of napkins and handed them to Danielle who thanked him again. She rubbed the napkin on her shirt in an attempted to dry it but it wasn't doing much.

"Don't rub, dab, it absorbs more," Hiroki said and pushed the napkin she was holding onto the shirt, pressing it onto her stomach.

"Cold," Danielle said and jolted backward, hitting the back of her head on the trunk of the tree.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to...I was just...I'm sorry," Hiroki stuttered out as Danielle cringed as she rubbed her head.

"It's fine, how much time is left for lunch?" Danielle asked.

"Little over half an hour, why?" Hiroki asked.

"I need to change before this starts to smell," Danielle answered and stood up, "Quite the charming impression, and only my second day."

"Better than no impression at all," Hiroki said with a smile, "Want me to walk you?"

Danielle looked directly into his eyes and looked down again. 'This is called nerves, that's when my hand shakes and I don't want to make eye contact. It's weird though, I want to look at him, but not if he's looking at me. Is that, embarrassment? Elevated heart rate, what does that mean?' Danielle said to herself then remembered she still hadn't answered Hiroki.

"Uh, sure," Danielle said and gestured toward the dorms.

The walk to from the quad to the dorm was quite. Not a word was spoken between the two by the time they reached the door. Hiroki wanted to talk, but couldn't think of anything to say. Then realized she was new, ask about where she's from.

"So, you're from, Paris right?" Hiroki asked.

"Yeah, my parents decided to transfer me out of the city, I didn't really care that much, I didn't really know anybody there either," Danielle said, trying to remember what the gang told her. 'Parents transferred me, no reason. No friends there, no one to contact.'

"Did you ever see the Eiffel tower?" Hiroki asked.

"It was Paris, I could see it out of my bedroom window if there weren't buildings in the way. I had to walk four blocks to get to school. The smells were awesome, walking past bakeries, wine shops, cafés, and it seemed like everyone smoked," Danielle said while smiling, as if she was actually remembering it.

"Sounds cool actually, now you walk past, dorms, the shower, and the smell of bad lunch," Hiroki said and Danielle smiled a little with a small laugh. A real laugh.

"When I started school there, it took two weeks before someone even said hi to me. Took you two minutes. I'd take friends over scents any day. Might not be saying much, but the food here is better," Danielle said and began to climb the stairs.

"What're your parents like?" Hiroki asked.

"My dad is, a little tough. Puts on this strong face, but he's hiding a lot of his emotions. The longer you know him, the more you notice the mask. My mother was the only one to make him take it off, at least for her. My mom is cool, a little off with people, probably where I get it from. Likes to stay safe in her own little comfort zone and tries not to leave if she can," Danielle said as they reached the girls floor.

"If she can't?" Hiroki asked.

"She learned to deal with it over time," Danielle answered.

"What do they do?" Hiroki asked.

"My dad has an occasional contract with studios. When they want to shoot a movie in France, they typically call him to get filming permits in the city or where ever they're shooting. If they need to close down a street for shooting, a subway, train station, that's all him. He does casting calls for extras, a lot of Hollywood stuff."

"Sounds like he enjoys his work, sounds like a cool job," Hiroki said, thinking what that would be like.

"Sounds good on the surface, but whenever he's doing that, he's never home. Not to mention he used to be a stuntman for martial arts movies, so he misses that. But sometimes, he takes me on the set, and I get to meet some of the actors. Couple of years ago, I met Jean Reno," Danielle said as they were about halfway down the hall to the door.

"Leon the professional. What about your mom?" Hiroki asked.

"She doesn't really have to work, because my dad makes plenty to spare. In college she used to get by as a dj for night clubs. Mixed her own music, and she still does that for fun. She uses my dad's connections to sometimes get her music in the background of some of the movies my dad works on."

"My dad works in an cubical, and my mom sits around all day writing a dictionary, wanna trade?" Hiroki asked and Danielle shook her head and pulled her key out.

"I'll be right out," Danielle said and closed the door behind her, accidently not shutting it all the way.

Hiroki put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the of the hallway. Then he noticed the crack in the door. Slowly he walked toward the door and tilted his head to and saw Danielle taking her shirt off, showing her bare back to him. He moved in closer for a better look before a hand grabbed the door knob and slammed the door shut, to make both Danielle and Hiroki aware of her presence.

"Hiroki the peeper, how will I ever explain this to your sister," Aelita said with a smile.

'Peeper, what does that mean?' Danielle asked herself then walked over to Aelita's desk and grabbed a dictionary. There were a lot of definitions for peeper. Only one made her blush. 'Voyeur, spy. He was looking at me. Did he see anything, or lack of.'

"Don't tell Yumi please, she'd castrate me," Hiroki begged and Danielle looked up castrate.

'Hopefully a figure of speech,' Danielle said to herself after reading the definition.

"Why shouldn't I, Yumi would love to have leverage on you against your parents. Spying on the new girl while she changes is decent blackmail in my book," Aelita said and leaned against the door.

"Please don't," Hiroki said, and then realized, now Danielle knew he was looking, "Danielle I'm sorry, the door was...I just...I...I'm sorry."

"I left the door open, it was my fault," Danielle said and Aelita knocked on the door.

"Danielle, we don't apologize to perverts, female code," Aelita said and Hiroki looked at his feet.

"Shouldn't you be in gym?" Hiroki asked suddenly, since right now she'd be skipping class if she was here. Aelita smiled and reached into her pocket to show him her gym excuse.

"Sprained my ankle, nice try though," Aelita said and Hiroki groaned.

"Please don't tell Yumi, I'll do anything," Hiroki said, now desperate.

"You can't tattle on Yumi, ever," Aelita said with a smile, "And if you do and I'll know, not only will I tell Yumi, I'll tell Milly."

"Deal," Hiroki said and extended his hand out. Aelita shook it and smiled.

"Now go to lunch," Aelita said.

"But I walked her over and..." Hiroki started then looked at Aelita's face, "I'm gone. I'll see you later Danielle."

"Alright," Danielle said back then noticed she was doing something, a new facial expression. Once she noticed she was doing it, she noticed she couldn't make it feel the same. She tried doing it over and over again, but couldn't.

"You dressed?" Aelita asked.

"Oh, no, hold on," Danielle said and walked over to her wardrobe to find a new shirt. Then she remembered some of it hit her skirt too so she loosened that so it was fall to her ankles and stepped out of it. Placing on a new skirt, she found a long sleeved grey shirt with a slit at the cuffs to slide her thumbs through.

"Done?" Aelita asked, since it had almost been three minutes.

"Yeah," Danielle said and Aelita walked in and sat on her bed, "You could have just come in, I wouldn't mind."

"Weird, even after the girls called you mosquito bites in gym you still trust people around you when you change?" Aelita asked.

"You don't care about breasts as much, I trust you," Danielle said walked over to the mirror and tried to do the facial expression again, "What was that expression?"

"What expression, let me see," Aelita said and looked at herself in the mirror from over Danielle's shoulder.

"That's the thing, I can't do it again," Danielle said and sighed.

"What did it feel like?" Aelita asked.

"Well, I was thinking about Hiroki, spying on me. I wasn't that insulted or anything. Strangely, I was just...flattered. I thought about the reasons he would, and then I noticed I was doing something with my lip unintentionally, and I can't do it again."

"It wouldn't have happened to be this," Aelita said and looked into the mirror and bit her lower lip and held it for a few seconds before stopping. Danielle tried doing it and couldn't do it.

"That's definitely it," Danielle said and tried again, "Why can't I do it again?"

"If I had the guess, the thrill is gone. Some girls do that to get a guys attention. You did it in response to a guys attention. It means you liked the fact he was spying on you, because you, well, you like him."

"I like him?" Danielle asked, trying to understand what like meant exactly.

"Means you think he's attractive in some way, whether it be based on appearance or personality. Rarely both sadly. At a young age it's typically appearance. Why were you changing in the first place now that I think about it?" Aelita asked.

"I spilt milk on my shirt and I needed to change it before it started to smell. Which sucks because I really liked that shirt," Danielle said and Aelita giggled, "What?"

"Now you're definitely starting to sound like a girl," Aelita said and Danielle smiled.

"Really?" Danielle asked.

"Yes, complaining that you spoiled your favorite shirt is a girl thing," Aelita answered and Danielle smiled wider and giggled.

"Keep it up," Aelita said and checked her watch, "And go back to lunch."

"Oh yeah, I'll see you later then," Danielle said and grabbed her bag and walked out of the room. She smiled to herself and said, "So I like Hiroki, and his sister is going to kill him. Wait, they said Yumi."

Danielle stopped on the stairs and finally realized something.

"Hiroki is Yumi's brother," Danielle said and then let out a sigh of relief, "Good thing I didn't use her dna."


	4. Genetics

**_Took a little longer than I hoped it would be, but been busy reediting it again because my grammer has always been pretty bad. Not to mention I've been trying to finish up some of my other stuff too. Well, read and review._**

* * *

The weekend following Danielle's arrival, Ulrich and Jeremie were in the lab. Jeremie was still trying to find a way to permanently shut down the computer, but before they left empty handed, Ulrich asked him to check out Danielle's information again.

"Ulrich, you think I didn't check it over one hundred times before we helped her. It's clean, she isn't attached to the computer at all," Jeremie said and Ulrich wasn't satisfied.

"Just look again, for my sake. If you don't find anything this time, I'll drop it completely," Ulrich said and Jeremie shrugged and pulled up her information and then decided to compare it with theirs to show Ulrich how human she was. After ten minutes of translating the code for Ulrich, Ulrich sat down and shrugged.

"Maybe you guys are right, she does look harmless," Ulrich said and Jeremie leaned back and crossed his arms.

"She is harmless, trust me," Jeremie said and was about to close it before Ulrich had an idea.

"Hey for fun, is it possible we can see how she mixed and matched our traits. She has my hair I know that, but what else, and from who else," Ulrich said and Jeremie thought about it for a moment.

"Could be fun actually, let's find out," Jeremie said and pulled up Danielle's source code and compared it to the others to see the similarities.

"Is that my hair?" Ulrich asked when he saw the code on his screen was similar to hers.

"No, that's your height, she'll be pretty short fully grown," Jeremie said and kept looking at the screens to compare, "Weird," Jeremie said.

"What?" Ulrich asked.

"She didn't use anything from me," Jeremie said and Ulrich laughed.

"Who would?" Ulric asked with a grin.

"You were right, she did hide something," Jeremie said and Ulrich laughed stopped.

"What can she do that a human can't?" Ulrich asked, suddenly serious.

"Nothing, she's clean in that aspect, but she didn't use all of the codes, in fact, only two of ours. I was wondering about that," Jeremie said and turned the chair away to think.

"But didn't she say she needed all of ours?" Ulrich asked and Jeremie nodded.

"She did, but now I know why. You see, I was doubting the fact it was possible to mix and match traits from five people. Especially with such diverse traits, it'd be a genetic mess to put it simply. She only could use two, and only needed two," Jeremie said and looked at the screen again.

"Why say she needed all five?" Ulrich asked.

"So not to strike jealously between us, she's smart," Jeremie answered and Ulrich scratched his head.

"Why would that cause jealously?" Ulrich asked.

"Example, how would you feel if xana didn't want your dna, but wanted mine?" Jeremie asked and Ulrich understood that oddly enough.

"I get it, Odd would take offence. Who did she use then?" Ulrich asked, then remembered. Brown hair, "Well me, and who else?"

"Another thing, two people, opposite genders," Jeremie said.

"So, Aelita or Yumi is the other person," Ulrich said and began to think. Jeremie already knew, but he didn't want Jeremie to tell him, he wanted to figure it out on his.

"She's really attached to Aelita. They even look alike when they stand next to each other. She's always asking her for advise, and tips, and help. She's like Danielle's big sister. Or," Ulrich said and looked up at Jeremie.

"Correct," Jeremie said, knowing exactly what Ulrich meant by that.

"Genetically, Aelita is her mother. It explains a lot. Aelita even looks like she's eager to fit the role without realizing what role she's playing," Ulrich said and Jeremie shrugged.

"Could be, but if Aelita is her mother as you like to put it, then you're her father," Jeremie said and closed the screens, "And so far, not a very good one."

"So wait, if in some weird drunken scenario we were to have a kid?" Ulrich asked.

"Danielle is a possible outcome, before I closed it, she didn't pick and choose, her traits were randomly selected. She picked you two, and hit random," Jeremie said and got off of the chair and began to walk to the elevator.

"Should we tell the others?" Ulrich asked.

"You can if you want to, but like you said, Odd might take offence," Jeremie said and when Ulrich stepped pressed the button that closed the door and began to raise them to the ground floor.

* * *

Danielle's final class let out and she walked through the halls with her bag on her shoulder bouncing against her hips as she moved back toward the dorms. She noticed after day three sometimes she had to push a little to get through, and that foot traffic typically had opposite lanes. Once outside she looked toward the dorms and began to walk while students flooded out behind her.

The quad was full of students leaving through the front gates to get home and parents outside in cars picking up their kids. Dorm students were sitting around the quad or going the rec room to play ping pong or foosball. She had tried both on her fourth day as a human, though she wasn't good a foosball, she revealed herself to be a good ping pong player.

Unlocking her dorm room with the key she threw her bag in and laid down and looked at the ceiling. Pulling the makeup kit she bought he looked at herself and tried biting her lip again. For some reason she couldn't do it well enough to satisfy herself. Before it was strange it happened on accident, and now it was strange that she couldn't do it again.

Aelita opened the door a minute later and tossed her bag on her bed and sat down opposite of her. Danielle tilted her head over and smiled then looked at the mirror again.

"Still can't do it?" Aelita asked. Danielle shut the mirror with the loud clap and placed it on her stomach.

"No," Danielle answered simply and sighed.

"I was thinking it about it, and I might have figured out a way for it to surface again," Aelita said and Danielle looked over excited. She sat up quickly and sat on her legs.

"Really?" Danielle asked and Aelita nodded.

"Work with me okay, it'll start stupid, but...just work with me," Aelita said and Danielle nodded.

"Okay, here we go," Aelita said and smiled, "Close your eyes."

Danielle did as told and waited for Aelita to begin what ever it was she was about to do.

"Imagine this, you and Hiroki are walking home together, to his house to study," Aelita said and Danielle peaked with one eye, "Close them." Danielle groaned and waited again.

"When suddenly, it starts to rain. It's pouring, you both are getting soaked and you start running for his house. When you get there, you need to get out of the wet clothes. Conveniently for the sake of the story, you brought a change of clothes with you," Aelita said and Danielle was about to say something before she Aelita told her to,"Zip it."

"So you take the clothes and go into his room to change while he waits outside. While he's waiting, he notices you didn't close the door all of the way. So he walked over to close it, and accidently look in and sees you. Your glasses are off and he sees you slowly taking off your wet shirt. He wants to be a gentlemen and not look, but he can't help it," Aelita said and grabbed the mirror on Danielle's lap without her noticing and held it front of her face. She said a few more details about the scenario before she suddenly stopped and told her to open her eyes.

Danielle did and looked at herself in the mirror to see herself biting her lip exactly the way she pictured herself doing it before. When she realized she was doing it, it kind of stopped but none the less she was excited.

"Was I just doing it?" Danielle asked and Aelita nodded.

"I figured you needed the right trigger to set it off. Hopefully you get a better trigger in the future, but for now it'll do," Aelita said and Danielle smiled at her as she got up to leave.

"Thanks mo..."Danielle began to say before she stopped herself, "Aelita," she finished, hoping Aelita didn't catch that. And she didn't.

"No problem, when ever you need to talk, you got five of us. Or four," Aelita said, remembering Ulrich probably would help, "See you later, bye," Aelita said and walked out, shutting the door behind her.

"Bye," Danielle said to herself and looked at her pillow before placing her head on it.

"She is my mother, but she isn't my mom," Danielle said and sighed.

Suddenly a knock came at the door and Odd was behind it holding a ping pong paddle.

"You owe me a rematch," Odd said and Danielle smiled and closed her door to follow Odd to the rec room where Yumi already was. The two of them were just killing time while waiting for Ulrich and Jeremie to come back from the lab.

"The ping pong savant returns," Yumi said as Danielle walked into the room with Odd.

"Beginners luck," Odd said and walked around the table. Danielle picked up the paddle from the table and readied herself for Odd's serve. Ping pong came naturally to her for some reason. If only socializing did.

"Serves," Odd said and put the ball into play. While they played Odd asked her about her week and she told him about her classes and was about to mention Hiroki before she remembered Yumi was in the room. By the end of the conversation, it was tied at seven, Danielle's serve.

"So, meet any cute guys?" Odd asked and Danielle missed the return.

"No fair Odd, you said that because she'd miss," Yumi said and picked the ball off of the floor, "Don't answer that if you don't want to."

"I do though," Danielle said and Yumi was suddenly filled with questions like Odd.

"Really, is it a yes or no to the guy question?" Yumi asked and Danielle blushed a little.

"That's a yes, who?" Odd asked and Yumi was waiting for the response as well, though she already had an idea of who it was.

"It must be embarrassing if I don't want to look at you while I say it," Danielle said, embarrassment still new to her.

"I understand," Yumi said.

"Not because I'm embarrassed by it, it's because you know him," Danielle said, concreting Yumi's theory of it being her brother.

"Ulrich or Jeremie?" Odd asked.

"Gross no," Danielle said and Odd smiled, "Or you."

"Who do I know? Is it," Yumi paused, waiting for the response she would see, "my brother perhaps?"

"Aelita told you already?" Danielle asked and Yumi nodded.

"Couple of days ago, wasn't sure about it till now," Yumi said and Danielle placed the paddle on the table.

"Wait," Odd said and walked over, "She's embarrassed because genetically, they're related. She used all of our dna, meaning she's related to all of us. The makes Hiroki her uncle or something."

"You're right, I didn't think of that," Yumi said and Danielle sighed, because she had lied to them earlier to avoid what she was about to tell them.

"I didn't use all five of your genetic codes, only two," Danielle said and Yumi and Odd looked at her.

"Mine of course, I definitely have the best dna," Odd said and flexed a little.

"Sorry no," Danielle said and Odd 'muscles' seemed to deflate.

"Brown hair, Ulrich's for sure. I would think Jeremie because of the glasses but Ulrich's mom has glasses, traits can skip a generation. You wouldn't have brought this up if you had mine as well. So, Ulrich and Aelita," Yumi said and Danielle nodded.

"Is that why you're so attached to Aelita?" Odd asked and Danielle shrugged.

"I don't know, but if anything it's more instinct. Some animals never leave their mothers side, humans are always attached to them. She doesn't know yet," Danielle said and sat on the couch next to Yumi as Ulrich and Jeremie walked into the room.

"Guys, we need to tell you something," Ulrich said as he walked in.

"We know, Danielle only used two codes," Odd said and Ulrich looked around the room, "She just told us."

"Never mind then, where's Aelita?" Jeremie asked and looked around the room.

"I don't know, she left the room and then I came here," Danielle said and Jeremie pulled out hi cell phone and stepped out to call her.

"Want to play ping pong?" Ulrich asked Danielle who looked up at him. Everyone in the room was shocked that Ulrich had asked that. Odd had a theory however and sat down next to Yumi to explain it to her.

"What's changed?" Yumi asked.

"Well, let's just say I think Ulrich is her father, and they both know that. I think he trusts her now," Odd said and Yumi smiled and watched her serve.

"I think you're right," Yumi said and leaned into the couch more.

"Alright, finish that up and meet us in the rec room, bye," Jeremie said and stepped back into the room and leaned against the doorframe, "Aelita is finishing her essay in the library."

"Figured," Odd said and watched Danielle spike Ulrich's shot well out of reach.

"She's really good a ping pong," Jeremie said and sat on the armrest on Yumi's side.

"Just like her dad," Yumi said and smiled as Danielle served it.

"Doesn't creep you out at all that Ulrich is the father of your girlfriends love child?" Odd asked and Yumi giggled into her sleeve as Jeremie just shook his head.

"I'm not even sure if Aelita is my girlfriend, but aren't you mad she didn't use yours?" Jeremie asked, though Odd was prepared for that comment.

"Nope, then she'd be too perfect. She didn't want too much advantage, so she gave herself a handicap," Odd said and was suddenly hit with the ping pong ball in the side of his head.

"I'll make you handicapped," Ulrich said, pointing the paddle in his direction.

"Don't fall asleep tonight," Odd said and Ulrich shook his head and served.

* * *

**_I just want to say this ahead of time, but I'll be playing around with the pairings in this one, as with me, the relationships are never as they seem._**


	5. Class Project

At the end of the month Danielle was in her biology class next to Hiroki, the two of them finding a simple way to communicate when the teacher wasn't looking. Between them was a single sheet of paper that they would take turns writing messages on, even signing their initials as if it was 'not so instant messenger'. They talked about what they were doing after class, and Danielle had already promised Odd a rematch again after she beat him a few nights ago in ping pong. Hiroki wanted to go to the wreck room too so asked if he could join her. She said yes of course and paid attention in class because if she looked at him she'd blush.

"The final exam will be graded in two sections, written test and partner project. Your lab partner is your partner, no picking," the teacher said and Danielle looked over at Hiroki and looked away when he looked back. Hiroki noticed and smiled as he looked away too.

"Two hundred points total, one hundred per section. I'll be handing out the subjects of study now and the guide sheet detailing the project itself," the teacher said and began to walk around the room and placed little sheets of folded paper and two guides at each table."

Danielle picked up the folded sheet and unfolded it to see what the assignment was. '_Origin of the Species_,' was written on the sheet of paper and Danielle handed it to Hiroki who placed it back on the table and shrugged.

"Could have been worse," Hiroki said and Danielle read it again and looked at the clock to see how long they had. As if on cue the bell rang and everyone began to pack up and leave. Danielle was the last one out of the room, having accidently dropped her book and needing it pick it up and getting stuck at the end of the line to leave the room.

When she stepped into the hallway Hiroki was leaning against the locker next to the door waiting for her. They walked down the hallway together talking about how they were going to do the project, primarily where.

"We could probably do most of it in the library," Danielle said and Hiroki just kind of shrugged.

"Possible but the library closes at five, and school ends at three. That gives us only two hours a day," Hiroki said and Danielle readjusted her bag while going down the stairs and stepping into the quad.

"I could get a pass to leave school grounds, and since your sister is old enough she could be my escort there and back," Danielle suggested and Hiroki shrugged again.

"That could work, we'll just need to use our time best we can," Hiroki said as he arrived at the gates and turned to face her.

"See you tomorrow then?" Danielle asked and Hiroki chuckled.

"It's the weekend," Hiroki said and Danielle giggled to herself and looked down. 'I hate embarrassment.'

"We could work on the project some over the weekend, no point not to use the time," Danielle said to recover.

"That's true, you have my number right?" Hiroki asked and Danielle shook her head and Hiroki told her the number, and she called him so he'd have hers.

"That settles that," Danielle said and closed her phone as Hiroki said good bye and began to walk home.

Danielle began to walk back to the dorms and after having to dodge a few people running up and down the stairs she arrived at her room and placed her backpack on the bed and sat down since she wasn't sure what she wanted to do now.

'I could go to the rec room, or the library to get a book for the project. Since the project is based off of a book, maybe I could find the book. What are the others doing?' Danielle thought to herself before Aelita walked in and threw her bag on her bed and looked over at Danielle.

"You get here fast everyday, or maybe I'm slow," Aelita said and Danielle smiled.

"I took my time today, so you're slow," Danielle said and Aelita smiled and sat across from her.

"So, one month, how you doing?" Aelita asked.

"Adjusting," Danielle answered and Aelita smiled wider and pulled out her cell phone to check her messages. None.

"You ever get frustrated over the fact that the person who is supposed to like you doesn't even call?" Aelita asked and Danielle shook her head.

"How could I?" Danielle asked and Aelita giggled and shook her head.

"Hiroki never calls you?" Aelita asked and Danielle shook her head.

"No, he doesn't even my number," Danielle answered, and then remembered now he did.

"Really?"

"Wait no, he does. We exchanged numbers today. See we're working on a project for biology and..." Danielle started before Aelita interrupted.

"A project, that's a lucky break," Aelita said and Danielle flinched back because she wasn't expecting it.

"Why?" Danielle asked.

"Don't you get it, you'll be around each other so much more. He likes you, you like him, and now you are placed into a situation that requires spending time together. Sure it isn't holding hands or going to a movie, but it's progress," Aelita said and Danielle looked down.

"He likes another girl too," Danielle said and Aelita suddenly wasn't so excited for her.

"What? Oh, Milly?" Aelita asked, just remembering that.

"Yeah, she's a grade older too, not to mention prettier," Danielle said and lowered her head while Aelita leaned over and lifted her chin up with her finger.

"Hey, never let anyone stop you from getting who you want. If you want Hiroki, as long as he's single, he's up for grabs. Even you said it, he likes you. Right now he's stuck between options, be the better one," Aelita said and smiled, "Anything happen earlier with him?"

"No," Danielle said rather quickly and Aelita turned her head a little.

"That's a yes, what?" Aelita asked.

"Nothing did happen, but I wanted something to," Danielle said and Aelita got excited again. She made a hand gesture that meant, 'go on.' "Well, I wanted...to...(quietly)kiss him."

"Why didn't you?" Aelita asked and Danielle blushed and looked down, "Sorry, but this is exciting to me, it's like I'm your mom watching you grow up."

'You have no idea,' Danielle said to herself, then said allowed, "It was weird, I kind of feel like I need a moment, not a need, in order to kiss him."

"That's oddly mature," Aelita said and Danielle shrugged, "Like both of you lean in and slowly kiss, instead of rushing in?" Aelita asked and Danielle nodded, "Maybe that's why that didn't work."

"You rushed Jeremie?" Danielle asked and Aelita nodded, "How'd he take it?"

"It was like a deer in the head lights, I just walked away waiting for a response. I would have preferred a negative response over nothing," Aelita said and looked down from the disappointment from the experience.

"Maybe Jeremie isn't the one," Danielle suggested and Aelita looked up.

"Too early to tell," Aelita said and leaned back on placed her head on her pillow, "By the way, Odd wants a rematch."

"Again?" Danielle asked and then heard a knock at the door. Danielle stood up because Aelita was laying down and answered the door to see Ulrich.

"We're all in the rec room, if you're up for it, come on down," Ulrich said and waiting for a response.

"Okay," Danielle said and walked out of the room, "Aelita?"

"I'm kind of tired, I'll see you later," Aelita said and turned away to face the wall.

"I call you later to see how you're feeling," Ulrich said and Aelita thanked him as he shut the door. A few seconds later something flashed across her mind. 'Maybe Jeremie isn't the one.'

* * *

The project Danielle and Hiroki were assigned was explaining how the 'Origin of the Species' came into being and how it had affected the science community. Also how it's text have affected the populace on a social level. Sounded easy enough.

"Charles Darwin published it on November 24th 1859. It's a landmark work of scientific literature for evolutionary biology," Danielle said as she read a book about Darwin.

"I know all about Darwin and the book, I think we should focus on the social impact of the book at the moment, I only know fragments of that," Hiroki said and Danielle shrugged and placed the book down and leaned into his couch more.

It was already Tuesday and Danielle was sitting in Hiroki's living room. Progress, just like Aelita said.

"The church wasn't happy that's for sure," Danielle said, having read about that already.

"For many reasons too. They had been telling people the earth is thousands of years old instead of billions. That the universe was created because god flipped a switch, instead of a theory, they offer an answer to a question that can't be answered. What if god didn't create humans, the very thought blows their mind.

"It makes people question the teachings. Or just makes them think on their own. People never really look at the best answer for the religion versus evolution debate. The best answer I think is god created evolution," Hiroki said and picked up the book to read a little more. Or pretend he was reading.

"The curfew ends soon, I need to go," Danielle said and Hiroki stood up to see her out the door.

"Yumi, Danielle needs to leave," Hiroki shouted up stairs and walked down a few moments later movement was heard from upstairs.

"See you tomorrow?" Danielle asked and Hiroki nodded while leaning against the door.

They began to just stare at each other, and for some reason Danielle didn't care that he could see her blushing. Hiroki took a step toward her, and Danielle took a slightly smaller step. Danielle closed her eyes before they heard foot steps at the door and both backed away embarrassed.

"See you at school," Hiroki said and opened the door for her and the stepped outside and began to walk. When they got fifteen feet down the street Danielle stopped and looked back at the house.

"What?" Yumi asked and then looked at the house. She smiled and said, "You were going to kiss him back there weren't you?"

"I was," Danielle said and looked at her. Yumi checked her watch and grinned.

"You still got time," Yumi said and Danielle looked at the house again, then back at her.

"Really, it's okay?" Danielle asked, noticing that not only didn't she care, she was encouraging it.

"What are you waiting for?" Yumi asked and Danielle placed her bag on the side walk and jogged back to the porch and knocked on the door. Hiroki opened the door and handed Danielle her cell phone.

"I was about to run out to give it to you," Hiroki said and Danielle took it and smiled.

"I was looking for that, I was so worried about it I was thinking about placing a reward for it," Danielle said and Hiroki chuckled.

"What's my prize?" Hiroki asked, as if he didn't already know.

Danielle leaned in with her eyes closed and waited for the impact. It came less than a second later, and it was warm and wet. Hiroki kissed back slightly harder and Danielle responded in kind. After a solid ten seconds their lips parted and Danielle slowly opened her eyes and smiled.

"Bye," was all she said before walking away.

"Bye," Hiroki said to himself since by the time he responded she was out of ear shot.

* * *

**_Hope you like the chapter, R&R_**


	6. Nothing

After the kiss, something strange happened between Danielle and Hiroki's relationship; nothing. For the next three weeks while working on the project, they didn't kiss again. They didn't end up holding ends, they didn't even talk about it. Neither ever started a conversation with the words, 'About that night.' The whole thing however, seemed to be bothering Danielle more. Once they presented and turned in the project, nothing continued to happen.

One night, Danielle sat on her bed looking at her cell phone for two hours straight, waiting for it to ring. Danielle would occasionally pick it up and start going through her saved numbers, which was only six people, and stop at his number, try to press the green button, then would end up closing it again on the off chance he would call first. Didn't seem to be working.

Danielle was however introduced to Hiroki's circle of friends. Which was all guys making the environment uncomfortable. She'd want to kiss Hiroki, but would have to sit around him and his friends talking about how many kills they got online last night. Or about sports, or random trivial subjects she hadn't learned about yet, or was just generally unenthusiastic about it. She didn't understand soccer, but she understood that must have come from Aelita and not Ulrich. She first assumed it might have been because she was a girl, but Aelita informed her otherwise. It's okay for a girl to like sports and video games, it's not exactly on most girls minds, but it isn't something girls never do.

"I'm not even sure he likes me anymore," Danielle said to Aelita at the end of the month when they were in the showers adjacent to each other with shoulder length walls dividing them. Shoulder length to Aelita, the walls almost passed Danielle's eyes.

"Hate to say it, but it's possible," Aelita said, not wanting her to have unrealistic expectations.

"I was afraid of that. I panic about it so much, and when I actually have the courage to notion I want to kiss him, that I want some relationship above friend, he just...is there a phrase for this?" Danielle asked.

"Blows you off," Aelita said and Danielle shrugged since she wasn't exactly sure, but strangely it sounded correct because the tone Aelita used.

"Blows me off, and now I sit with the boys at the table, listening to them talking about, toys I guess," Danielle said and Aelita giggled and began to lather her hair with the conditioner.

"Get used to that scenario, that one has been around since the creation of toys," Aelita said and closed her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair to keep it out of her face.

"I hate toys, he can just take his video games and...is there a phrase for this too?" Danielle asked.

"For lack of a better phrase, shove them up his ass," Aelita said and shook her hair a little and just let the water slither down her body and into the drain.

"Why would I shove them up his ass? That doesn't sound like I don't care about his games, it sounds like I don't care about his ass," Danielle said and Aelita laughed, "What did I say this time?"

"Nothing, I've just never heard of anyone taking time to dissect that phrase. Little phrases that don't make sense when you think about each word individually," Aelita said.

"Example?" Danielle asked.

"Sorry, the one on the top of my head is a little too grown up for you," Aelita said and Danielle groaned.

"Oh come on, like I won't find out sooner or later," Danielle said.

"True, hopefully later though. The phrase, blow job, you're not exhaling on his...thing," Aelita said, trying the find the best euphemism.

"Thing?" Danielle asked, wanting to know, making Aelita groan, not wanting her to.

"Can I please not say it?" Aelita asked.

"You brought it up," Danielle said, trapping Aelita with the phrase she would use to make Danielle tell her stuff.

"Don't go there, it's a word I don't like even thinking about," Aelita said, hoping that was enough to make Danielle drop it. She didn't.

"You're thinking about it, right now," Danielle pointed out.

"Strangely a good point," Aelita said and shook her head.

"Come on, like I'll run through the halls, shouting, 'Aelita said...whatever.'" Danielle said and Aelita giggled and stopped the water, grabbed her towel, wrapped it around herself, and then used her cleavage to tuck the towel into something to keep it wrapped.

"Fine, thing is in this particular case is a euphemism for penis," Aelita said and Danielle didn't respond, "Please tell me you at least know what a penis is."

"I know that much, but now I'm curious about what a blow job is," Danielle said and Aelita groaned and looked at the floor.

"You're so adorable, you just never stop asking questions about anything regardless of the subject matter," Aelita said and looked straight up again as Danielle turned the water off and grabbed her towel.

"Is that a bad thing?" Danielle asked.

"Sometimes, you're lucky it's just us in here, blow job isn't exactly a word you should use in public," Aelita said and grabbed another towel and began to rub her hair dry, "However, when it's just us, it's okay. Talk about boys and girl stuff with either Yumi or myself. The boys wouldn't understand or would avoid the conversation."

"I can see why," Danielle said and wrapped her towel above her chest and walked out from under the shower head and toward the mirrors.

"If anything else happens, let me know," Aelita said and Danielle nodded then began to wrap her hair in the towel. Danielle looked at herself in the mirror and looked over at Aelita. Older, prettier, smarter.

"I hope when I made the body, I didn't mess up," Danielle said and Aelita looked over at her.

"What do you mean?" Aelita asked.

"What if I'm stuck at this age for the rest of my life? What if I stunted aging on accident, I went over every detail best I could, but what if I made a mistake?" Danielle asked and looked at Aelita through the mirror.

"You'll get older, you'll grow up," Aelita said with the smile then pointed at her chest, "And hopefully out."

"I'll probably stay the same as you are now," Danielle said and blinked at herself.

"What makes you think that?" Aelita asked.

"Because I know what traits I have, I have your boobs," Danielle said and Aelita giggled and shook her head.

"Look, I'm not exactly done growing yet, you're creating your basis of comparison pretty early," Aelita said and Danielle shrugged.

"Still, a c cup by age fifteen wouldn't be too bad," Danielle said and Aelita nodded before they left the room together.

* * *

Nothing continued to happen for another month. Danielle had been human for three months and she wasn't any less clumsy, any more popular, any more or less anything. It had started to snow by early December, leaving around an inch on the sidewalks and grass around Kadic. Winter break was in a few weeks, Danielle being one of the few students to stay on campus since she really had no where else to go.

Danielle had also stopped sitting at Hiroki's lunch table with his friends. She found an unoccupied table for herself where she did her homework from the morning classes and ate alone everyday. No one seemed to notice, not even Hiroki. Which irritated her even more because she was only sitting alone so Hiroki would notice.

At least Danielle could still play ping pong. It's strange how nice it is to have something to vent with, and nothing helped her more than being able to smash a ping pong ball back and forth. Ulrich soon had to start playing at his full potential just to counter the volley. One point went on for nearly fifty volleys, with Ulrich getting the point at the end, and everyone in the room clapping not just for Ulrich, but for both of them.

"I can't believe you're nearly as good as Ulrich," A girl behind her said, making Danielle turn and face her. Milly closed her camera after filming the whole point with Tamiya behind her.

"Practice," was all Danielle could say.

"One of your parents must play with you a lot," Tamiya said.

"You have no idea," Danielle said with a smile, making Ulrich slightly grin and Yumi and Odd hold back a laugh.

"I'm Milly by the way," Milly said and reached out her hand.

"Danny," Danielle said, the first time she had introduced herself without saying 'Danielle'.

"You started a couple of months ago right?" Tamiya asked and Danielle nodded and then shook her hand as well, "Tamiya."

"I started about three months ago, if I'm right, you two are a grade over me," Danielle said and placed the paddle on the table.

"I think so, so you're sixth grade then?" Milly asked and Danielle nodded.

"You two run the newspaper right?" Danielle asked and they both nodded, strangely in unison as if rehearsed.

"Well we try, not many people actually read it," Tamiya said and Milly kind of shrugged to agree.

"I do," Danielle said and Milly and Tamiya looked at each other, then back at Danielle, "I really do, the article about the survey was interesting."

"The one where the girls in the school voted on the hottest guy at Kadic?" Tamiya asked and Danielle nodded.

"I want a recount," Odd said and Ulrich shook his head and threw a ping pong ball at him.

"Why was Jim even an option, and a better question, third?" Yumi asked making Milly shrug.

"The better question is why was I forth?" Odd asked and Yumi shrug, as if to agree with him for some reason.

"I'd be mad if I lost a popularity poll to Jim," Yumi said.

"He beat you by two votes," Tamiya said to Odd who groaned and looked at his feet.

"It's my feet, they haunt me," Odd said and groaned again.

"And apparently they haunt some of your ex's too," Milly said, not to help Odd's mood.

"What are you two researching now?" Danielle asked Milly and Tamiya who smiled and looked at everyone else in the room.

"It's classified," Milly said, making Tamiya smile.

"But letting one person know wouldn't hurt, promise to keep it to yourself?" Tamiya asked, and Danielle nodded.

"Come with us, we'll show you," Milly said and picked up her bag and walked out of the rec room with Tamiya and Danielle who said bye to the group.

"It's about time," Yumi said as she watched them leave.

"What do you mean?" Odd asked.

"She made some friends," Yumi answered.


	7. Not Broken, Shattered

The only things better than having friends at school, is when you're actually in the same lunch hour. Milly and Tamiya were not in Danielle's lunch hour, which made her sit alone, but at least she had someone to talk to after school besides the gang. Someone more her age, someone who doesn't know who she is. But one thing still bugged her, Hiroki still wasn't calling.

Danielle was sitting next to Hiroki during science, stealing a glance or two at him every chance she had. He was focused on his work, which was strange because, when in the hell was he ever focused on school work. Nothing could seem to take his gaze off of the book or the teacher, or the notebook and pen, and that was bothering her more. She was officially less interesting than a sheet of paper, regardless of the context written or drawn upon it.

After class Hiroki would get up and leave before Danielle had a chance to even pack up and walk out with him. Today she was watching the clock and had packed a minute early and watched the second hand. Then something strange happened, Hiroki noticed. Danielle and Hiroki just looked at each other the moment before the bell rang, stood up at the same time, and walked toward the toward in unison like a strange dance.

"What are you doing after school?" Hiroki asked Danielle, catching her off guard.

"Milly, Tamiya and I are playing some games in the rec room," Danielle said and reached the door, stepped out into the hall and waited an extra moment so he could step out as well.

"Mind if I go as well?" Hiroki asked and Danielle suddenly got excited, but tried to keep that from surfacing into an expression.

"Sure, I guess I'll meet you over there," Danielle said and took a right instead of a left to break away from him.

"See ya," Hiroki said and Danielle just kind of waved over her shoulder.

* * *

After classes were over Danielle jogged to the dorms and as usual was the first to arrive, took her pocket mirror out of her bag, and then tossed the bag on the bed. She sat next to it and opened the mirror to take a look at herself. Danielle checked her hair and face for anything unsettling, then tried to bite her lip again. As usual she couldn't do it on command. Then she looked at her clothes. Jeans and a long sleeved blue shirt. It was decent but for some reason she wasn't satisfied, which she rarely was. Aelita had told her that being a girl, you naturally have a biological condition to never be satisfied with your clothing.

Danielle threw her shirt off and began to go through her drawers to find something that was a little more flirty. Black tube top looked good so she threw it on and looked at herself in the mirror attached to the closet. Then she felt stupid for pulling out the pocket mirror with a mirror already in the room that was taller than her. Either way she liked the shirt so began to look for something new. It was strange though, she liked the combination of jeans and tube top but for some reason it didn't feel complete.

While Danielle was searching for something else Aelita walked in and saw only half of Danielle while the other half was in the wardrobe.

"What are you looking for?" Aelita asked, making Danielle jolt up and slam her head on the pole, dislodging it and causing her shirts and jeans to slide down. Danielle got tangled in the mess of hangers and clothes and when she manage to pull herself out, also pulled out two shirts and a pair of jeans, hanger and all.

"Sorry," Aelita said as Danielle rubbed her head and turned around.

"I'm looking for something to wear," Danielle said as she reached in and tried to push the pole back in slot, but the weight of the clothes was too much.

"I haven't seen you in the top yet, looks good with those jeans," Aelita said and Danielle began to take the hangers off and throw them on the bed.

"I agree with that, but I think it needs something else," Danielle said and Aelita tilted her head while looking at Danielle to think.

"Try a skirt on top of the jeans," Aelita said and Danielle let that sink for a moment.

"What's the point of that? The reason we wear skirts in the first place is to make them want to look," Danielle said.

"True, but just try it," Aelita said and tossed her bag on her bed and sat down next to it and pulled out a few books to work on some homework.

After Danielle got the pole back on and the hangers back on the pole, she went through her drawers and looked at her skirts, thinking of the best color sequence.

"Nothing matches the black tube top," Danielle said as Aelita opened the page she booked mark in her math book with the sheet of paper she was doing the assignment on.

"Maybe the skirt isn't the problem, maybe the shirt is," Aelita said and Danielle began to go through other shirts to see if anything else worked, "Try your tighter blue jeans, the grey skirt, then your black long sleeve with the grey trim at the collar and wrist," Aelita suggested.

Danielle didn't even fight it, she just put it all on then looked at herself in the mirror. She liked it, but something just felt strange. Why it felt strange was something she couldn't explain.

"I do like it, but I still like the tube top," Danielle complained and fell down on her bed and groaned, "I should have been a male, so I could jus, throw on a pair of old jeans and a shirt, with horribly mismatching color schemes, brushed my hair with my finger tips and then still not care. Women are supposed to be the superiors biologically if only it didn't take us three hours to change and still not be happy."

"Get used to it, I'm not nearly as picky for some reason. One season I was wearing pretty much the same outfit, then the next I change for no apparent reason. It looked better that's all that's important when you think about it," Aelita said and Danielle sat up and looked at herself.

"It's final, this will have to do," Danielle said to herself then stood up, "I've taken long enough as it is."

Danielle stood up and began to walk to the door before she saw herself in the mirror and the black tube top on the edge of the bed, "But it looked so good on me."

"Then wear it under the long sleeved shirt. If it gets hot then at least you have the option to drop a layer. Chances are it won't get too hot though," Aelita said and Danielle looked at her.

"Why not?"

"It's winter if you forget," Aelita said and Danielle shook her head in embarrassment.

"Yeah, I'm going to leave before I change my mind," Danielle said and Aelita giggled as the door shut.

"Yup, she's definitely a girl," Aelita said as she answered equation thirty three.

* * *

When Danielle arrived at the rec room she noticed it was more crowded than usual. Winter tended to keep the kids inside more than usual, so there was actually a line to play ping pong and foosball. Hiroki, Milly, and Tamiya were already there, and already all together. The girls were sitting on the couch and Hiroki pulled a chair over and the three were chatting. Danielle ducked down at the door and peered at them from afar, Hiroki making them giggle and grin. Especially Milly.

"What are we looking at?" A voice whispered to her, making her knock her head against the door frame.

"Can't anyone just announce themselves without scaring the crap out of me?" Danielle asked and saw Odd.

"Sorry, you just looked like you were window shopping and saw something shiny," Odd said and leaned against the wall, "Let me guess, Hiroki is in there, but he still isn't being communicative?"

"Yes, but I was going to meet him here, but I took awhile getting changed and now he's in there talking to Milly and Tamiya and I...did you just say communicative?" Danielle said and Odd tilted his body and looked in.

"Idiot yes, complete idiot no," Odd said then saw Hiroki and the girl and leaned back in, "I wonder what they're talking about."

"So do I, but they're in the back of the room," Danielle said and Odd smiled.

"I have an idea, answer your phone," Odd said then dialed her number. Danielle's phone vibrated in her hand and she hit answer. Odd hit speaker phone and said, "Can you hear me?"

Danielle nodded and Odd said, "Put your phone on mute, I'm going to place my phone near them so you can hear." Danielle found mute as Odd walked through the rec room and grabbed a drink and placed it on the table next to the couch Milly and Tamiya were on.

"Could you three watch my phone?" Odd asked and they all nodded, and Odd walked away and pretended to do other stuff. Danielle was surprised that Odd's plan actually worked, she could hear everything.

"...a little weird but, really sweet and nice," Tamiya said, Danielle only catching the end of the statement.

"She has a crush on me," Hiroki said to Milly who giggled into her sleeve.

"No way," Milly answered and Hiroki nodded.

"Well, do you like her?" Tamiya asked and Hiroki didn't really respond right away.

"I guess, she's weird, but in a cute way. On the first day of school it was like she was born a week ago," Hiroki said and Tamiya from what Danielle could see hit him in the arm.

"Leave her alone, she just moved her, did you enjoy having to learn french and being the little japanese kid in primary school?" Tamiya asked and Milly giggled anyway.

"She is a little clueless. Maybe she'll grow out of it like Aelita did," Milly said and Hiroki chuckled.

"Define grow out," Hiroki said and Tamiya rolled her eyes and looked away.

"What is taking her so long anyway?" Milly asked when she realized Danielle should have been there by now. The only thing Danielle could think was, 'They noticed just now?'

"I don't know, but she did kiss me a few months back," Hiroki said and Milly giggled and Tamiya didn't noticeably react.

"Really, who went in first?" Milly asked.

"She did really, so just to be nice I let her," Hiroki said with a smile Danielle couldn't see.

"Is she a good kisser?" Milly asked.

"Not really, but it was probably her first kiss," Hiroki said and Danielle blushed and leaned out of the doorframe and back outside.

"I don't like talking about someone when they aren't in the discussion, maybe she has something to say about how you kiss," Tamiya said and Hiroki chuckled.

"If she was here, she'd say it was great," Hiroki said with grin.

"I doubt that," Milly said with a grin as well. That made Danielle lean back in and see Milly doing something she had been trying to do on command for months; biting the lower lip.

"What, you need proof?" Hiroki asked and Danielle decided she had heard enough and looked away as she ended the call and began to walk in. She looked at Odd who gave her a thumbs up then she looked back at the three to see the two leaning in when she was five feet away.

"Milly," Tamiya said as she hit Milly's shoulder but it didn't stop the collision. Danielle froze as they kissed, not once, but separated lips for a moment to change angles and do it again, "Milly," Tamiya said louder, making Milly stop.

"What?" Milly asked, making Tamiya point with her head in Danielle's direction. Hiroki looked over as well as Danielle wasn't sure if she should cry in front of people or run away crying. She choice the latter.

Tears were streaming before she even passed the door as Tamiya shot up and ran after her. Odd looked over at Hiroki and shook his head, picked up his phone and left the rec room as well.

"What a cry baby," Milly said as Hiroki looked at his feet, looking seemingly guilty, "Don't worry about it, she'll cry for a week and get over it, seats open if you want to prove your point again."

"That's okay, I need to be home," Hiroki said as he stood up and grabbed his back pack and began to walk out of the room. Hiroki still had two hours left on his curfew.

* * *

Danielle had her head cradled in Aelita lap as Tamiya rubbed her back and Odd sat on the opposite bed, leaning against the wall.

"Just let it out, you'll feel a lot better," Aelita said as Danielle cried till she soaked Aelita's shirt and jeans.

"I know Hiroki liked Milly as well, but he should stay somewhat more committed to the girl he kissed first," Odd said and Tamiya looked over at him.

"That's rich coming from you," Tamiya said and rubbed her back more.

"That's why I know," Odd said and Aelita looked over at him.

"Odd, this really is a girl thing, so if you wouldn't mind," Aelita said and Odd nodded and left the room, closing the door before Ulrich caught it with his hand.

"What happened?" Ulrich asked, hearing about the incident from someone who saw without the details.

"I'll tell you later," Aelita said as Ulrich began to step out.

"No," Danielle managed to say through her tears, "He can stay." Aelita just shrugged and gestured for him to come down and sat at the edge of the bed next to Tamiya.

"Hiroki kissed Milly in front of her," Aelita said and Ulrich shook his head and patted her head.

"How you holding up?" Ulrich asked and Danielle said something that vaguely translated as, 'What does it look like?'

"I have some homework to do, I'll check up on you before I go to bed, okay?" Tamiya asked and Danielle nodded and Tamiya patted her back twice before she stood up and walked out of the room.

"This is a really strange coincidence," Ulrich said and looked over at Aelita before taking the rubbing the back job.

"What is?" Aelita asked.

"All three us, in a situation like this, like parents comforting a daughter," Ulrich said and Aelita looked at him confused.

"Technically we're all related to her," Aelita said and Danielle smacked Ulrich and looked up at him throw her drowned face.

"What?" Ulrich asked, and Danielle tried to mouth, 'she doesn't know.' "Huh?"

"She...does...ent....know," Danielle stuttered out and Ulrich suddenly realized what she meant and tried to get away without saying it.

"What don't I know?" Aelita asked.

"It's nothing really, I would have said the same thing if it was Yumi's lap she was turning into a pool," Ulrich said and Aelita smiled and looked down at her.

"It does feel like that for some reason though," Aelita said and looked back up at Ulrich, "It's like we're playing house, only the baby doll is real."

"I never played house when I was a kid, my dad made me play accountant," Ulrich said and all three of them got a decent laugh out of it.

"I remember playing it when I was little girl, but never with a boy," Aelita said with a smile then looked back down at Danielle who seemed to be slowing down finally.

"Feeling better?" Ulrich asked and Danielle shook her head.

"Not really," she said in the clearest speech pattern she had, had in the last hour.

"Running out of fluids?" Ulrich asked and Danielle giggled and sat up finally and hugged Aelita, then hugged Ulrich.

"I do have a headache," Danielle said and Aelita left Ulrich in charge so she could get some aspirin from the nurse.

"I can't believe you almost told her," Danielle said and sat against the wall while wiping left over tears from her cheeks and on the ridge of her nose.

"I can't believe you haven't, you have to tell her sooner or later," Ulrich said and then walked over to the door and grabbed a towel hanging off of the door and tossed it over to her.

"I prefer later," Danielle said then rubbed her face dry and looked over at him, "I don't know what to do. I can't talk to him ever again, I hate Milly, I almost hate Tamiya by association but she redeemed herself."

"You could find another guy to like and date him," Ulrich said and Danielle shook her head.

"Who would date me?" Danielle asked, "Unless love spells are real I'm not on anybodies radar."

"You'll figure it out, but you should try to talk to him about it before Yumi finds out, she'll get mad at him," Ulrich said.

"Let her," Danielle said and Ulrich laughed, and Danielle laughed a moment later as well.

"I'm okay for now, you can go, I want to talk to Aelita alone when she gets back," Danielle said and Ulrich nodded and hugged her before leaving and closing the door behind him.

"Love spell, if only," Danielle said, then suddenly had an idea, "Love spell no, love program however," Danielle said and ran to her bag and pulled out her notebook and pen and began to jot down the outline of the programming, "All I would really need is two DNA samples. Who would be compatible?"

Aelita came back a few minutes later to see Danielle writing in her notebook and placed the tablets next to her and a bottle of water.

"Thanks," Danielle said as she continued to list names and traits she'd like.

"What are you writing?" Aelita asked.

"My diary, I guess, I feel like expressing things to myself," Danielle said and Aelita smiled.

"Yup, you're definitely a girl," Aelita said and feel back on her own bed.

"Which guy has the best hair in the school?" Danielle asked.

"Why?" Aelita asked.

"Basis of comparison," Danielle said.

"Odd has good hair," Aelita answered.

"Ew, no," Danielle said and Aelita laughed.

"Umm, William, heck if I care," Aelita answered and started to work on her homework again. Daniel added William to her list and closed the book, deciding to finish her little project tomorrow.

* * *

**_I remember playing house when I was like 4 or 5, anyone else? Danielle has her first heart break, and spends half an hour to pick out an outfit when she said she'd be back in a minute. Yup, she's definitely a girl. I like when Aelita breaks the forth wall, that was my favorite part to write. The original line was Danielle saying, "Can I borrow that hoody dress thing you have?" Aelita shakes her head and says, "I threw it away." "Why?" "Because, it was so second season."_**


	8. Hair and Height Comparrison

The next morning the entire gang seemed to have been filled in to the Danielle/Hiroki situation. Strangely not everyone was on the same mind set. Aelita met Yumi at the gate of the school while the guys were in the cafeteria having breakfast, waiting for them to discuss whatever they were going to discuss.

"What did your brother have to say about it?" Aelita asked Yumi when he passed the gates.

"Basically what Danielle said to you, the story is the same on both sides, no one is lying about the event," Yumi said and leaned against the gate.

"Anything else?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah, he says he doesn't really regret it, just that Danielle had to see it. He apologizes to put it simply," Yumi said placed and then her backpack on the ground.

"He shouldn't be relaying that through you, he needs to tell her himself," Aelita said and looked at Yumi in a way that could only be described as an angry mother.

"He tried calling her last night, she wouldn't answer," Yumi said, and tried to understand Aelita's gaze. Yumi had seen that gaze hundreds of times from her moms eyes.

"I told her not to, she wanted to, but I told her he needs to tell her in person," Aelita said.

"Why, so she could run away crying again, so far Danielle and you are the only things not letting him apologize," Yumi said in her brothers defense.

"How are you not on Danielle's side? What was stopping him from walking to our room, or running after her when she ran away crying? The crying in which, was caused by him," Aelita said, not expecting an argument with Yumi who she assumed was on Danielle's side.

"He's a guy, you're expecting a twelve year old who already likes girls to run after one he made cry. He didn't know what to do, who would at twelve?" Yumi said in hopes that would end the argument.

"Fair enough, but he needs to tell her today or tomorrow, no later," Aelita said and began to walk to the cafeteria.

"In all honesty though, he's liked Milly longer," Yumi said and Aelita stopped in her tracks.

"What?" Aeltia asked as she turned around, surprised by Yumi's comment.

"You heard me, he's testing his options," Yumi said and Aelita walked back to Yumi.

"That may be a guy thing, but when you say it like that, it makes him sound more like a jerk. As if when Danielle and him kissed, it didn't count as anything. It was just a, what did you say exactly, a test?" Aelita said, glaring right back into angry mom gaze.

"Yeah, guys do it all the time," Yumi said and watched as Aelita kind of flinched. Yumi wasn't sure what the exact reaction was, but it kind of looked like a flinch.

"I understand that you would defend your brother. What I don't understand is how you could call what he did, normal boy girl interaction. I don't think that kind of behavior makes him just another guy, it makes him a jerk."

"My brother is just a jerk then?" Yumi asked, glaring with the defensive/angry protective older sibling gaze.

"Not at heart I don't think, but yesterday, yeah," Aelita said and glared back, "You can defend something like that, but you can't make the first move on Ulrich?"

"What is in common between those arguments?" Yumi asked.

"Well you said Danielle isn't helping the matter at all, neither are you. You moan and gripe about Ulrich, but are you doing anything to close that breach? Then the second he shows any interest in someone else, suddenly you're defensive of a man you have no claim on."

"Don't even go there," Yumi said slowly, to stress each word as if to increase the impact.

"The only difference is, Danielle has made an effort. She calls him, tries to talk but he ducks her for months. You ducked Ulrich for years and still say he isn't doing anything."

"Let's only talk about Danielle and Hiroki please," Yumi said looked away.

"Fine, but why aren't you on her side?" Aelita asked.

"Why do I have to be on a side? What are the sides exactly? Hiroki is a jerk, or Danielle is an overly sensitive litte bit..." Yumi managed to get out before Aeltia interrupted.

"Don't you call her what you were about to," Aelita said while pointed her finger at her face.

"Or what?" Yumi said, locking eyes with Aelita.

"Or I'll punch you in the face," Aelita threatened and Yumi giggled, breaking eye contact to laugh.

"The face? Aelita, you can't reach my face. I'm looking three feet down at you, I don't know whether I should laugh or pinch your cheeks." Yumi said and tried to pinch Aelita's cheeks but had her hands knocked away.

"Say it, I'll find a ladder if I have to," Aelita said and Yumi held back a giggle.

"A ladder?"

"Yes, a ladder, just to punch you in the face that rests upon the shoulders of your circusly tall body."

"What, Overly sensitive little bit..."Yumi managed to get out before Aelita gave her a quick shot to the gut, making Yumi lean down to hold her stomach. "That's not my face."

"I know, but now your face is in range," Aelita said and delivered on her threat.

Meanwhile the boys were in the cafeteria when suddenly they noticed people running outside.

"What's going on?" Ulrich asked Odd and Jeremie both shrugged and tried to see where everyone was going. William ran over to the table all three of them looked up at him.

"Yumi and Aelita are fighting at the gate," William quickly stated, make all three of them react in a second flat.

"Who do you think is winning?" Odd asked as the passed the cafeteria doors into the quad.

"Shut it Odd," Ulrich said and ran out in front to see not what he expected out of a fighter like Yumi. It wasn't a fight, it was a cat fight. No tact, no skill, no concern for hair or clothing, just a pathetic excuse for men to cheer.

"Holy crap," Odd said when he broke through the crowd and tried to pull them apart with Ulrich, which left them both with a scathed.

After about ten seconds of pulling they managed to pull them apart, Ulrich holding back Aelita and Odd holding Yumi.

"Ulrich, maybe you should have taken Yumi, I just figured out I can't hold her back," Odd said as Yumi was pushing him inch by inch.

Strangely neither girl was shouting anything like 'let me go, one more hit, I'll kill the bitch'. They were just trying to continue the fight.

"Just hold her long enough," Ulrich said and picked up Aelita, threw her on his shoulder, and walked away with her before a teacher came.

"Put me down!" Aelita shouted and after a small struggle, just stopped and let him carry her.

Yumi settled down as well when she was almost out of view and Odd felt safe to let her go.

"I can't believe you actually held me back," Yumi said and walked over and picked up her back.

"Who started the fight?" Odd asked.

"Who do you think?" Yumi asked and picked up her bag.

"Honestly I think you did," Odd said and Yumi rolled her eyes and placed her strap on her shoulder and took out the mirror in the bag. She looked at herself to see the first punch left a small red mark, no scratches though.

"Aelita threw the first punch," Yumi said.

"Which means you instigated it thinking she wouldn't throw the punch, hence, you started the fight," Odd said and Yumi snapped her mirror closed and put it back into her back.

"Who cares who started it, it's over, it's out of our systems," Yumi said and walked toward the main doors on the math wing for her first hour class.

* * *

"You can put me down," Aelita said from atop Ulrich's shoulder as he carried her toward her room.

"No I can't," Ulrich said and began to walk up the stairs, using the guard rail for balance.

"Yes you can, I'm not going to run back, it'd be pointless. I've already embarrassed myself enough today," Aelita said as he was about halfway up the stairs.

"That's a good point, promise you won't run back?" Ulrich asked when he passed the doors to the girls dorms.

"Yes, just put me down," Aelita said and Ulrich leaned over to put her feet back on the ground. As a joke Aelita tried to run passed him and Ulrich caught her again.

"No you don't, fix your hair before the warning bell," Ulrich said then let her go.

"Okay," Aeltia with a smile and they both gave a small laugh and began to walk down the hall.

"Who's side are you on?" Aelita asked.

"It depends on who started the fight," Ulrich answered.

"Not that, Danielle and Hiroki," Aelita said and they stopped at the door.

"Danielle of course, what Hiroki did was unacceptable even to Odd's standards of relationships," Ulrich said.

"Yumi is on her brothers side," Aelita said and entered her room where Danielle was sliding on a pair of jeans without a top or bra on, thankfully not facing the door.

"Door!" Danielle shouted and Aelita slammed it shut.

"Hurry up," Aelita said and leaned against the door and looked back at Ulrich.

"How could there even be two sides?" Ulrich asked and Aelita shrugged.

"That's what started the fight, she was going to call Danielle a..." Aelita said then remembered Danielle was five feet away, so leaned over and whispered it into his ear.

"Oversensitive, how about Hiroki's zero sensitivity?" Ulrich asked and Aelita nodded to agree.

"Apparently every guy does this sort of thing. He's just testing his options. You have options but I don't see you kissing every set of lips willing to make contact," Aelita said and knocked on the door.

"Clear," Danielle said and Aelita entered the room with Ulrich.

"Hey guys," Danielle said now wearing light blue jeans with a pink tube, and sliding her arms in the sleeves of her lavender hoody she would leave unzipped.

"Go to class, mommy and daddy are talking," Aelita said to joke, still clueless on how literal that statement was.

"Okay mommy, bye daddy," Danielle said and kissed Ulrich's cheek before grabbing her bag and leaving the room.

"She's recovering well," Ulrich said as the door shut.

"It's weird, something you told her last night seemed to have really sunk in," Aelita said.

"Can't imagine what that was, I didn't say much," Ulrich said as the warning bell indicating class would begin in five minutes went off throughout the school.

"Already, I still need to fix my hair," Aelita said and took her out from her drawer and walked to the mirror.

"You're hair is fine," Ulrich said as he stood behind her.

"I guess it is," Aelita said as she stood in the mirror.

"But it does need something," Ulrich said and Aeltia smiled at him through the mirror.

"What?" Aelita asked.

"Just this," Ulrich said and playfully messed her hair up with both hands.

"Hey," Aelita said and ducked down to make him stop. She managed to turn around and face him, deciding to play by messing up his already untamed hair. They both laughed, then stopped and looked at each other. Talk about awkward.

They both felt the awkwardness of the look, but it was strangely comfortable. Too comfortable, and the awkward part made Ulrich look away first and grab the doorknob. Aelita leaned over and kissed his cheek, and Ulrich let out an awkward chuckle as he left the room with a inaudible goodbye.

* * *

Through out the entire day Danielle was spending less time paying attention in class, and more time examining her peers. Looking at physical attributes, and some personality traits that she could notice. Things like hair color, eye color, lips, cheeks, when it came to the girls. Then she examined the boys hair, shoulders, body shape and height. Then she made a list of her favorites from both sides and cross referenced them to see which two would be the most compatible.

The list of guys were, William, Theo, Herve( for his brain not brawn),someone in Yumi's grade she didn't know, and the Xavier the goalie for the team. For the girls it was, Sissi(which she crossed out after analyzing her personality), Emilie, Naomi, Heidi, Tania; the girl always in black.

After spending all day taking notes she slowly walked over behind all of them one at a time, and snipped off as little hair as possible. Thankfully most of them were in the wreck room after class so it wasn't as difficult as she expected it to be. She placed each hair in a folded sheet of paper and sealed labeled them with initials, the guy she didn't know she left blank.

Next part was the hardest part. She had to get a hold of Jeremie's lap top and disconnect the link to the super computer, and then get into his room and disconnect it from his desk top. Danielle knew how to do it, not getting caught doing it was the hard part. Chances were if they found out what she was doing they would take it the wrong way. It took her long enough to build trust, and she didn't want to lose it in a second.

During here lunch hour she didn't eat, instead she walked to the dorms and to the boys floor and counted the doors to Jeremie's room. She wiggled the door knob to see if he left it unlocked, and of course he didn't. Danielle swore to herself and began to walk before she noticed something near the corner of the gap between the floor and the door. A string.

Danielle kneeled down and carefully grabbed the string with the tips of her thumb and index finger, and pulled on it. After a few inches of string, she found a spare key attached to the other end. Looking down the halls, she opened the door and quietly closed it behind her and walked over to the computer and booted it up.

After pulling up the uplink to the computer she noticed a outward signal to something else. Danielle clicked on the signal and discovered she could remotely shut off the link to Jeremie's laptop as well. Danielle smiled and quickly turned them both off before anything happened. Danielle closed everything and locked his room back up, even going as far as placing the key back where it was.

* * *

The next morning Danielle was at the mirror in the girls bathroom brushing her hair with her towel still wrapped around her body. There was steam still coming from the showers behind her from the other girls showering, with one coming in or out every minute or so. Danielle's glasses began to fog over so she put her brush down on the sink and used some of her towel to wipe the condensation off, and placed them back on to see Milly leaving the showers with a towel on and a little shower bag that had her own brush and cleaning products.

"Maybe you need contacts," Milly said to her as she placed her bag on the sink and pulled her brush out.

"What is that supposed to mean exactly?" Danielle asked.

"Nothing, just guys seem to shy away from glasses," Milly said, and even though the statement itself wasn't insulting, the tone she used made it insulting, and Danielle was getting the hang of understanding tones.

"I like my glasses," Danielle said.

"It's not about what you like," Milly said then began to brushed her own hair.

"Maybe I'm going for a guy who likes glasses," Danielle said and Milly tried to hid the giggle, but couldn't.

"Good luck," Milly said and placed her brush down.

"I can't tell if you're gloating or not," Danielle said and Milly looked at her through the mirror.

"In someway I might be, but not really. He's too young," Milly said and turned her body to face Danielle directly.

"What?" Danielle asked and took a step forward and placed her brush on the sink next to Milly's, "You did what you did, for pretty much no reason?"

"He's just a guy Danielle, take him if you want, if you can that is. I heard he already had a crush on me, might be hard to convince him I don't like him after this whole fiasco," Milly said and Danielle felt something completely new. Instead of acting on it, she reached over, grabbed a brush and left the bathroom without further incident.

When she got to the room she found Aelita talking with Ulrich in the room. They were laughing when she walked in, but her suspicions of something else were eliminated when they didn't act like she walked in on something. Ulrich did however leave so Danielle could change.

"What was so funny?" Danielle asked as she let the towel drop and quickly slipped on panties.

"Nothing really, Odd sleep walked straight into the shower last night," Aelita said and Danielle giggled while looking for a pair of jeans and a shirt.

"How cold is it today?" Danielle asked.

"Little chilly, so if you were thinking on the skirt, I'd advise against it," Aelita said and Danielle swore to herself and slipped the jeans on, "You okay."

"No not really. I ran into Milly in the shower, and something she said just...grr," Danielle said while browsing for a shirt.

"Anger, I think that's the first time you've had that. You couldn't really understand it, but for some reason, you just wanted to hurt her right?" Aelita and Danielle nodded, "Anger is one emotion you need to control, it can get you in trouble."

"That's funny coming from you," Danielle said and Aelita giggled and shook her head.

"She had it coming to her I swear," Aelita said and smiled, "So, what are you up to after school?"

"Not sure, but if I'm not back before six or so, don't wait up," Danielle said and slid the shirt on looked at herself in the mirror. Blue jeans and a yellow shirt with orange trim. After putting that on she slipped on her lavender hoody and checked her messenger bag to see if she had everything, and then added her brush.

"Alright," Aelita said before the warning bell rang, "What did Milly say?"

"I'll tell you later," Danielle said as they both grabbed their bags and left the room where Ulrich was still waiting. Ulrich and Aelita turned left, Danielle turned right, locking the door behind her.

* * *

Half an hour after the final bell Danielle was in the scanner room of the lab, placing each strand of hair she collected in the scanner, then taking the ladder back up to run them through the computer. After an extensive process of picking her favorite male and favorite female DNA sample she smiled and pressed combine at random.

Before Danielle hit run scanner however she took the ladder back down and took her brush out of her bag and placed a strand of her own hair in the scanner. She went back to the monitor and ran that through to, and added a trait stating he'll be mildly infatuated with whomever the DNA belonged to. It just happened to be her.

Next process was creating a program similar to her own for the DNA to latch onto. It took an hour just to created his history, and create an account just like her own. After everything was finished she looked over it three times to make sure everything was right, and finally be satisfied.

"Emilie and William, prepare to become parents," Danielle said and pressed enter to virtualize him.

* * *

_**New character being introduced next chapter, any ideas for a decent name? Sometimes I like to do reader involvement. I've been trying to come up with a story that is built around that. You give me an event or idea, I write the chapter. Next chapter is building on to a 15 chapter story. Twist, events, pairings, dialog even, a story that is constructed by the readers. Any way I do hope you enjoyed the chapter and that I will see you in chapter 9.**_


	9. The Creations Creation

Three days later, Danielle was successful in keeping the gang out of the lab while her creation learned to walk like she had. With finances in order and registration complete, he bought clothes and suitcases and entered school in the middle of the day. He meet Mr. Delmas who showed him to his room to drop off his belongings, and then escorted him to class.

Danielle had made ground rules with him being there. The rules included, the gang couldn't find out, try to avoid Emilie, and try to stay low on the radar. If everything went as planned then there shouldn't be a problem.

Milly kept her head propped up with her elbow on her desk, looking at the board and slowly writing the information down. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and the teacher placed the chalk down, and answered the door. When the door knocks, some of the students would get worried it was the Mr. Delmas coming to get them. However, at least one or twice a year, it was a new student. The teacher and Delmas exchanged a few words before a boy stepped into the room, some of the girls stopped slouching and got a better look.

He was easily one of the tallest in the grade. Black eyebrow length hair that was messy. yet somehow presentable. His eyes were solid brown, that scanned over the classroom as the girls in the back rows leaned around the people in front of them for a better look. He wore a pair of black slacks with a white button up shirt tuck in with a belt, leaving the top button undone. Over the shirt was a light black hoody unzipped. And to top it all off, hard leather shoes.

"This is Elliot Parker, where did you transfer from again?" The teacher asked and Elliot turned toward her.

"I just transferred from Saint-Denis, Reunion," Elliot said and the teacher simply nodded and asked if he could introduce himself.

"Well, like she said, my name is Elliot, and this is the first school I've been too that didn't require a uniform so pardon my formal appearance, I'll be street by lunch," Elliot said and a few girls giggled.

"Why are you formal then?" A boy in the front row asked and Elliot looked over at him.

"My mother insisted," Elliot said and a few guys snickered. 'Momma's boy,' was silently said, though not silent enough, "At least my mother doesn't pick out my clothes unlike you." A few girls giggled from the retaliation.

"Settle down, Elliot have a seat please," the teacher said to end the confrontation before it started and Elliot walked to the third row and sat in the available desk. He leaned into the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. He placed his right elbow on the back of the chair and leaned back, listening to the teacher lecture.

Milly looked over at him and looked away, and then looked back again. Elliot could feel someone was looking at him, so looked her way, making her flinch away in embarrassment. Elliot gave a small chuckle and looked at the teacher again, and Milly looked back again. Elliot felt someone staring again and the process continued for at least a minute before when Milly looked back the forth time, he was still looking and Milly froze.

Elliot opened his back pack and pulled out a notebook and began to write something, and when he was finished, showed it to Milly. _'What is your name?'_

Milly turned the page in her notebook and write down her name and turned it toward him.

'_When is your lunch hour?'_

'_7__th__.' _

'_Mind if I join you?'_

'_Not at all.' _

After the response Elliot gave a small wave and returned his notebook to his bag, Milly bit her lower lip with a small smile and tried her best to not look at him for the rest of the hour.

* * *

Milly was sitting in her lunch hour across from Tamiya, waiting for Elliot to enter the room and sit with them. Every couple of bites she was look at the doors for him to appear, or at the lunch line to see if he had already slipped in. Tamiya noticed she was glancing around had to snap her fingers in Milly's face just to get her attention.

"Hey, Milly," Tamiya said and Milly flinched and looked across the table.

"What?" Milly asked.

"What are you looking for?" Tamiya asked.

"A new student started today, I told him he could eat lunch with us," Milly said and Tamiya understood why she was distracted.

"He must be really cute if you're so anxious," Tamiya said and Milly didn't even bother to deny it.

"He's not cute, he hot," Milly said and looked around again.

"Calm down, he'll show up eventually," Tamiya said, then heard some girls talking about someone entering the cafeteria from the table next to her. Tamiya looked at the doors and saw Elliot walking in, dressed more casually like he said he could be by lunch.

"Is that him?" Tamiya asked, and Milly turned around, and quickly shot back with a nod, "He's okay."

"Did he see me yet?" Milly asked, and Tamiya looked over at him to see he was already moving toward the table.

"Yep," Tamiya said and Milly drummed her fingers on the table and looked up at him when he sat on the table instead of on the chair.

"Hope I didn't take too long," Elliot said and Milly shook her as she looked up at him, to see him in more casual attire. Blue jeans with a long sleeved shirt under his hoody. He still had the shoes on though.

"Not at all, I just sat down myself," Milly said and Tamiya shook her head and Elliot looked over at her.

"I'm Elliot," Elliot said with a hand extended, Tamiya shaking it and introducing herself since Milly wasn't proper enough to do it herself.

"Where you from?" Tamiya asked.

"Saint-Denis," Elliot answered and Tamiya began to think.

"The capital Reunion island or, northern Paris commune?" Tamiya asked.

"The first one," Elliot said, impressed by her knowledge of geography.

"Live anywhere near the Leon Dierx Museum?" Tamiya asked and Elliot shook his head.

"Not really, it's a long train ride. I live closer to shore," Elliot said and Tamiya smiled and Elliot smiled too. Milly looked between and waited for one of them to say something, and neither of them did for the longest time.

"So," Milly said to break up their gaze, "you gonna eat?"

"Oh, yeah, be right back," Elliot said and walked toward the line and Milly looked over at Tamiya who watched him leave then looked back at Milly who had an expression she couldn't quiet understand.

"What?" Tamiya asked.

"You were totally eye humping him," Milly said and Tamiya giggled and shook her head.

"And you weren't," Tamiya said and began to eat again.

"You couldn't tell I called dibs on him?" Milly asked and Tamiya looked back up and shook her head.

"You're unbelievable," Tamiya said, "First you destroy any chance Danielle had with Hiroki for no reason, and now you're calling dibs on a guy just because he seems to be more into me."

"He isn't into you, he was totally flirting with me in class," Milly said and Tamiya looked back and saw him leaning against the wall in the line with his arms crossed, giving a small wave directed at Tamiya, but Milly saw it as well and believe it was for her.

"See, he waved at me," Milly said and Tamiya groaned.

"He waved at me, you weren't even facing him when he waved," Tamiya said and Milly looked at him to see he was looking in their direction, but not at her. He was looking straight at Tamiya.

"Let's just drop it," Milly said and picked up her fork to start eating again.

"That's oddly mature for you," Tamiya said and Milly didn't respond as Elliot walked back with a tray, and sat next across from Tamiya. Milly believe it was so he could be next to her. It was actually so he could face Tamiya.

* * *

Danielle sat at the bench outside after school, waiting for Elliot to meet her like she asked earlier. He eventually came out with his back pack and walked over to the bench and stood across from her.

"How was your first day?" Danielle asked and Elliot shrugged.

"Decent I guess, what ever that means. I guess my parents are better at socializing than yours, I never got nervous or scared the entire day. I did meet your friend Tamiya though," Elliot said and Danielle found it strange how fast he adapted.

"Wait, no jitters?" Danielle asked.

"Calm and collected the whole day. Just came naturally," Elliot said and sat down.

"It took me a month," Danielle said and Elliot chuckled, "It's not funny."

"Sure it isn't," Elliot said and Danielle was ready to see if her infatuation program worked.

"So, want to hang out in the rec room?" Danielle asked.

"Sorry can't, Tamiya volunteered to give a school tour," Elliot said and Danielle wasn't sure how to respond, "What?"

"Nothing, just could you meet me there later?" Danielle asked and Elliot nodded.

"Sure," Elliot said and Danielle smiled, 'it works,' she said to herself, "I'll see if Tamiya wants to go as well." 'Huh?'

Danielle noticed she took to long to respond so nodded and said that was okay before he stood up off the bench and began to walk toward the futball field where he was supposed to meet Tamiya.

"What just happened?" Danielle thought out loud.

* * *

Danielle sat on her bed the following morning trying to figure out what went wrong with the infatuation programming. Elliot didn't seem to like Danielle the way he was programmed to. It seemed he was drown to Tamiya for some reason that she couldn't figure out. Danielle couldn't stand the fact it seemed mutual. Milly entered the rec room for a second, saw Tamiya and Elliot and left before anyone noticed she was ever there, except for Danielle. If only the program worked so she could throw it in her face.

She spent time in the lab going over every detail, and couldn't figure it out. Maybe the program just didn't work at all and Tamiya was simply Elliot's type. No matter which way she tried to understand it, it didn't make sense. Danielle left the lab after looking over the program that was supposed to make Elliot like her, at least in theory. She arrived back in her room and began her homework before she got behind. At least geometry made sense.

Meanwhile Tamiya was looking through her wardrobe for something and couldn't find what ever it was. A minute later Milly walked into the room and saw Tamiya tearing through her drawers now, taking everything out, and then placing the items back in when she didn't find what she was looking for.

"What're you looking for?" Milly asked.

"My brush, I had it this morning, and now it's gone," Tamiya asked and Milly opened her wardrobe and handed Tamiya's brush to her.

"My handle broke so I've been borrowing yours till my parents send me my next allowance," Milly said and Tamiya stepped in front of her mirror and began to fix her hair.

"Should I ask?" Milly asked, wondering why she was doing her hair after school and not before it.

"I'm meeting Elliot in the library," Tamiya said and Milly groaned and sat on her bed, "What?"

"You know what," Milly said and Tamiya lowered her brush and looked at her.

"I know you like him, but could you at least show some respect for what I like for a change. Or, anyone else for that matter," Tamiya said and Milly looked at her lap.

"You're right, this is important to you. I'll stay out of the way and won't ruin it," Milly said and looked up again.

"It really sucks being on the other end of the spectrum," Tamiya said and Milly nodded.

"Should I apologize to her?" Milly asked, and Tamiya nodded.

"You should apologize to Hiroki as well," Tamiya said, "For leading him, unless you legitimately like him."

"Kind of, but not enough to do what I did," Milly said and stood up and grabbed the door handle, "Good luck," Milly said and left the room.

* * *

Danielle was laying on her bed with her text book in front of her and her notebook to her right, copying the equations before solving them. Aelita was on her bed leaning against the wall, with her cell phone in her hands, thumbing the keys to reply texts. Aelita giggled to herself, making Danielle turn her head and look at her.

"What's so funny?" Danielle asked.

"Ulrich thinks I should braid your hair," Aelita said and Danielle shook her head and continued to work on her homework again before a knock came at the door.

"Could you get that?" Danielle asked and Aelita sat up and walked toward the door without lowering the phone and opened the door to see Milly.

"It's for you," Aelita said and walked back to her bed and continued texting Ulrich.

Danielle turned her head all the way around to face the door and wasn't quiet sure how to react. Anger seemed appropriate, but the only thing she felt was surprise. The look on her face didn't express gloating, it was, different. Almost the exact opposite.

"Can we talk?" Milly asked, and Danielle looked over to Aelita. Aelita made a gesture that oddly looked like a mother telling her child to accept the apology from their sibling. Danielle dog eared her text book and walked toward the door and closed it behind them so they could talk in the hallway while Aelita was sending another text.

_Aelita : 'Looks like Milly is apologizing to Danny.' _

_Ulrich : 'Must be because of the new kid.'_

_Aelita : '???'_

_Ulrich : 'The new kid likes Tamiya, but Milly likes the new kid.'_

_Aelita : 'Karma?'_

_Ulrich : 'It sucks when the person you like, likes your friend instead.' _

Aelita looked at the message for nearly a minute, and wasn't sure how to respond. She was about to text, _'I can relate to that,' _but stopped and cleared the message. Did she relate to that? The only way she could relate to that if one of her friends was liked by someone she liked. Yumi was her only female friend, even with the fight. Jeremie definitely liked her, but was the feeling truly mutual? The thing that bothered her the most was that she almost sent what she typed impulsively.

Do impulses mean anything specific? Are they lasting or momentary?

_Ulrich : 'You still there?'_

_Aelita : 'Yes.'_

_Ulrich : 'Maybe Yumi will apologize to you.'_

_Aelita : 'In a month she'll just act like it never happened so she won't have to.'_

_Ulrich : 'Did you send a response to my message, the one before you went away for a few minutes?'_

_Aelita : 'No I didn't, I can't really relate.'_

Aelita waited for a reply for twenty seconds and it didn't come like most. She was about to text something before her phone vibrated and a new message appeared.

_Ulrich : 'Maybe Jeremie does like someone else, might explain why he's been distant and you're texting me instead of him.'_

_Aelita : 'I'm beginning to think Jeremie and I aren't the right people for each other in general.'_

_Ulrich : 'I've been seeing that as well. After nearly a year it seems like you've been only friends the whole time, and neither of you told the other.'_

_Aelita : 'Who would be right for me? Someone who knows what I really am, or doesn't?'_

_Ulrich : 'It's not a matter of what you are, it's a matter of who you are. The right person will love who you are, not what they don't know about you.'_

_Aelita : 'Who am I then? A socially awkward eighth grade student, or an experiment come to life?'_

_Ulrich : 'Neither. You're you, and I wouldn't change a thing about you.'_

_Aelita :_ _'So according to what you just said, you're right for...' _Aelita began to text before she cleared the message and took a deep breath and placed her phone on the bed next to her. She almost did something impulsively again.

_Aelita : 'I'm about to get ready for bed, thanks for the chat though.'_

_Ulrich : 'Anytime, good night,' _Ulrich sent, placed his phone on the ground and plugged it into his charger.

Ulrich rested his head against his pillow and looked at the ceiling for a minute before saying to himself, 'I don't think she caught on.'

* * *

**I would like to _thank_ _Living in the Story and Darkangelodd _for submitting ideas for the new characters name. Sorry this chapter took forever to come out though I had finished it some time ago. Computer malfuction, I really need to get a new flashdrive so I can at least post stuff away from my computer. **


	10. I'm Sorry

Danielle was laying down on her bed, just looking straight up at the ceiling. Elliot had been here for a month already, and it looked like he was officially dating Tamiya. Yumi and Aelita could sit in the same room without glaring, and a week after that Aelita's theory proved correct when Yumi seemed to act like nothing had ever happened.

Aelita walked into the room and collapsed onto her own bed and began to stare at the ceiling as well.

"Bored as well?" Aelita asked.

"What gave that away?" Danielle asked sarcastically, and Aelita smiled. She was catching on to sarcasm very quickly.

"I heard Hiroki actually apologized to you," Aelita said and Danielle turned her head towards the wall.

"I really don't care anymore," Danielle responded and Aelita rolled over and sat up on the edge of her bed.

"You might still be able to patch things up, salvage a friendship at the very least," Aelita suggested.

"And sit at his lunch table again with that tension, I think I'll pass," Danielle answered and Aelita walked across the room and sat at the foot of her bed.

"You should at least talk to him," Aelita suggested and Danielle took about ten seconds to respond.

"To just get made a fool again, embarrass myself to tears again, no," Danielle said and Aelita rubbed her shoulder.

"Are you going to carry that to your grave?" Aelita asked.

"I think I will," Danielle answered.

"You're definitely a girl," Aelita said and Danielle snickered and sighed.

"What about you and Ulrich?" Danielle asked as she rolled over to look up at Aelita.

"What about us?" Aelita asked.

"Oh come on, you two text twenty four seven, are extremely flirtatious, and then you two do that awkward chuckle to avoid kissing because you both believe your relationship should remain platonic, or you both believe the other believes that," Danielle pointed out and Aelita looked at her shoes.

"So now it's noticeable?" Aelita asked, for once when the two of them had a conversation, it was Aelita's turn to be embarrassed.

"Am I right, I just thought I was shooting in the dark, but I was right?" Danielle asked, and Aelita nodded and Danielle placed her hands on her face and giggled a little bit, "I've grown from socially incompetent, to a full blown psychoanalyst."

"Which means if you noticed, other people have," Aelita said and sighed, "Does Yumi know? We just stopped fighting, how would she feel if she found out I might be interested in Ulrich."

"Make the preemptive strike," Danielle suggested, "It only makes sense. Their entire history is for Yumi to deny feelings and only slightly hint them to him, whenever he's tired of waiting for her to respond to his advances, and he tries other options."

"It is a very noticeable pattern I will admit," Aelita said and stood up and sat on her own bed again, "The only problem is, I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?" Danielle asked.

"If I actually like him, or the fact that we technically share a daughter has anything to do with it," Aelita said, and Danielle suddenly grew nervous.

"Yeah well technically saying I'm also Odd's kid, and Yumi's and Jeremie's," Danielle responded, hoping to see if she actually knew.

"Nice try Danny, but you would be a genetic mess if you had that much information. The only people if we tested you and it would come back positive for a blood relationship is Ulrich and me," Aelita said and Danielle blinked and looked over at her.

"Who told you?" Danielle asked and Aelita smiled.

"I figured it out, and when I asked the others, they told me, you told them, not to tell me," Aelita said and Danielle looked away, "Why?"

"I liked the way you treated me, I thought that..." Danielle begin.

"That if I knew I would treat you differently, well, have I in the past month?" Aelita asked and Danielle shook her head, "Though I was rather disappointed when I went to the lab to confirm it and found the information for Elliot on the screen."

"What?" Danielle said nervously, now her heart was racing and if she had asthma, she's be inhaling medicine by now.

"You created him just to get back at Milly, devilishly genius I'll admit," Aelita said, but then said much more seriously, "What were you thinking?"

"I...I...does anyone else know?" Danielle asked, scared of the backlash from this one.

"Only Ulrich, he was with me in the lab when I found out. We went over all of his information, and found that he was no strings attached like you. You doubled your data with a few tweaks to make you two separate, Emilie and William though, interesting choices," Aelita said and Danielle looked away, avoiding eye contact.

"I'm not mad, I'm just a little disappointed that you kind of cheated your way out of a pretty common human emotional response. Every time someone hurts you, you can't just create someone else to fill the void, though making him infatuated with Tamiya was brilliant by the way," Aelita said and Danielle looked up at her.

"That wasn't the intended result, the program was supposed to be pointed toward me," Danielle said and Aelita looked confused.

"So why am I seeing Tamiya's code on the monitor?" Aelita asked.

"What, no I put my hair in, I took a strand from my brush," Danielle said and stood up off her bed and opened the drawer below it, making Aelita lift up her feet, and pulled out her brush.

"That's not your brush," Aelita said and Danielle looked at it.

"Yeah it is, what makes you think it's not my brush?" Danielle asked. Aelita pointed at the base of the brush under the handle with the initials '_TD'_ written with a sharpy, "Tamiya Diop."

"Don't do what I think you're going to," Aelita said and Danielle looked up at her.

"I won't, I'm not jealous of her actually, he was supposed to be my tool in the first place. He served his purpose, even if it wasn't the original plan, I won't do to Tamiya what Milly did to me," Danielle said and tossed the brush on the bed.

"Wow, you've come a long way from barely being able to walk in a straight line," Aelita said and Danielle smiled.

"Does that make me normal?" Danielle asked.

"Yes, but more importantly, it makes you human."

* * *

Ulrich was slowly walking up the stairs to go and knock on Aelita's door. He still had no idea how he was going to word anyone of it. No idea how he was going to even start that conversation. All he knew was that he had to tell her something. The flirting, the texting, everything felt like an invitation. Hopefully it was, or else he was about to make a complete ass of himself. Aelita would understand, and tell him straight, he trusted that at the very least.

The door was only twenty feet away now, and Ulrich was asking himself when did he get so close to the door. Hopefully Danielle wasn't there, the last thing he needed was an audience. Suddenly the door opened from the inside and Danielle stepped out, looking the opposite way and began to walk down the hallway with her back to him. Ulrich stopped and held his breath till she was passed the swinging doors and he could hear her footsteps descending. Once that was settled he continued and stopped in front of the door and rose his hand to knock, and the door once again opened, making them both jump back.

"Whoa...don't do that," Aelita said, with slightly elevated breathing that was already lowering.

"Sorry, mind if we talk or were you going somewhere?" Ulrich asked and Aelita looked down the hall the direction Danielle walked.

"I was going to the library with Danielle, walk and talk?" Aelita asked.

"I'd rather have this conversation behind closed doors," Ulrich responded and Aelita giggled a little bit and held the door open wider.

"Yeah, sure come in," Aelita said stepped to the side so Ulrich could enter. When he was in she slide her back against the door till it closed all of the way and then sat on Danielle's bed with Ulrich on her owns.

"I don't know if you've noticed or not, but, our conversations, are...just...getting really awkward," Ulrich started with and Aelita gave an awkward chuckle.

"I have noticed that, and I've noticed that every time I kiss your left cheek, my lips move a little more right every time," Aelita said and it was Ulrich's turn to awkwardly chuckle.

"What does that mean, what does this mean?" Ulrich asked while gesturing back and forth between the two.

"Well, to quote someone who taught me a lot when I first arrived at Kadic, if you find yourself doing everything we've been doing for the past few months, don't try to fight it," Aelita said and slowly stood up and stepped across the space in the room. She sat next to Ulrich and they look at each other from side ways glaces, gradually turning their heads to make the gaze more direct.

"Who told you that?" Ulrich asked and Aelita suddenly turned away and looked at her feet.

"Yumi did," Aelita said silently yet not out of Ulrich's ear shot and sighed.

"Think about it, has Yumi ever followed her own advice?" Ulrich asked and Aelita shook her head, but kept her head down.

"No she hasn't, but, she called you first," Aelita said tears in her eyes that began to drip off of her face and onto her lap. Ulrich wasn't sure if he should hug her or just rub her back, but he did know leaving wasn't an option.

"Please, go," Aelita said, so much for what Ulrich knew.

"Why?" Ulrich asked.

"Just go, please, before I can't stop myself anymore," Aelita mumbled and Ulrich placed hi hands under Aelita's chin and lifted her face to eye level with his.

"Just, don't stop yourself, let it go," Ulrich said, waiting for Aelita to respond.

"Even with the stuff she said a few months ago, she's done so much for me. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for her. I don't want to betray her," Aelita mumbled and slid away from Ulrich who lowered his hand off of her chin and stood up.

"I'm sorry, I thinks it's time for me to leave," Ulrich said and walked to the door and closed it behind him without saying goodbye.

Aelita's heart was beating out of her chest, and she quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent Yumi a text message. She threw her cell phone at her pillow, while hoping Ulrich didn't get too far away. He was just heading down the stairs he entered from when Aelita stepped into the hallway.

"Ulrich," Aelita said, not shouted since she didn't want to draw to much attention. Ulrich's head peaked around the corner and he stepped back into the hallway and stopped.

Aelita wiped her tears as she walked over and stopped in front of him.

"I'm going to feel guilty for a long time, but this is hoping it's worth it," Aelita said and leaned up into his lips and kissed him. Ulrich started to kiss back immediately and after several seconds their lips parted and they turned their head and went in again. The kissed in the hallway for a mere seconds to them, though it was over five minutes.

When they were done they placed their foreheads together while looking into each others eyes, and in a few seconds both were smiling, then back to kissing. They agreed in the hallway to make it public and not hide it, but for at least tonight, it was their secret.

Aelita didn't even check her phone before going to meet Danielle in the library, and missed Yumi's reply.

'_I'm sorry as well, unless you're talking about something else.'_


	11. Acceptance and Surprise

**I just find it interesting how so far no one has said Ulrich and Aelita can't be together. All I get is awws. Someone even mentioned the way I organized events and characterized them, it's believable. I'm still Ulrich/Yumi, but if you are someone who has read my other stuff, you know I like the weird couples for the sake of a challenge.

* * *

**

Odd was the first person to arrive at the breakfast table after Aelita and Ulrich, who were sitting next to each other, talking about how they were going to break the news to Jeremie and Yumi. Odd placed his tray down and looked at the two, who continued talking as if he wasn't there.

"Break what news to them?" Odd asked as he grabbed his fork and stabbed the sausage on his plate.

"Officially as of last night, we're dating," Aelita said and grabbed Ulrich's hand on top of the table so Odd could see.

"Working on an elaborate aprils fools joke are we?" Odd asked and Ulrich shook his head and leaned down to kiss Aelita's hand, "Of course you're not," Odd said sarcastically.

Aelita and Ulrich leaned over and kissed each other for a few seconds then looked back and Odd for his reaction. Odd slowly chewed and shrugged.

"Actually, I saw this coming," Odd said with half a mouth full and started on his next link.

"How?" Aelita.

"I read his texts when he's sleeping," Odd said with a grin and Ulrich looked at him.

"You read my personal texts?" Ulrich asked and Odd nodded.

"You two have been flirting for months, neither of you really talk to Yumi or Jeremie anymore, but you have nearly five hundred texts a piece to each other." Odd said and Ulrich groaned.

"How did you figure out the code to my phone?" Ulrich asked.

"One, two, three, four was my first guess," Odd said and Ulrich looked at Aelita who smiled.

"That's the best you could come up with?" Aelita said with a giggle.

"Last time I tried being clever with it, I forgot the password," Ulrich said and Odd smiled.

"Three, seven, eight, zero, if my memory serves me right," Odd said and Aelita looked at Ulrich.

"Was that your last password?" Aelita asked.

"I remember it now," Ulrich said and Aelita laughed and looked at Odd.

"Have you always been good at figuring out passwords?" Aelita asked, and Odd nodded, "What's my cells password?"

"It's a guess, but first think of something significant to you. I'd say that's the day you were materialized. And that was November....fourth I want to say, so one, one, zero, four," Odd said and Aelita took out her cell phone and started typing.

"What are you doing?" Ulrich asked.

"Changing my password," Aelita said and looked up at Odd, then held the phone under the table so he couldn't see.

"Alright, try it now," Aelita said and handed Odd her phone. Odd held it for a moment, took a bit of his food and held the fork in his mouth with his teeth and typed in something and handed it back to her.

"Unbelievable," Ulrich said and Aelita started to change it again.

"Two, three, five, eight," Odd said with a smile, "Little mathematical, so naturally it's Jeremie's password."

"You read his too?" Ulrich asked and Odd nodded.

"Talks to his dad a lot, luckily for you Aelita, he was asking advise for how to manage a friendship with an ex girlfriend. Good timing you two," Odd said and Aelita was relieved to her that.

"What's mathematical about his password?" Ulrich asked.

"Fibonacci sequence," Aeltia answered, "I figured Odd didn't do the homework three weeks ago."

"I figured she'd try to outsmart me. If it wasn't that my next guess was two, eight, eight six," Odd said and Aelita let her hands drop on the table and looked straight at Odd.

"I haven't even finished typing it," Aelita said and Odd smiled.

"What does that one mean?" Ulrich asked.

"Release date of Pretty in Pink," Odd said and Aelita groaned and tried to think of something else.

"You only knew that because you were reading my texts a few days ago," Ulrich said and Odd nodded and continued eating.

"Alright try it now," Aelita said and Odd placed his fork down and tried for a few minutes but couldn't get it to unlock. He placed her phone down and grabbed his fork again and shook his head.

"Well played," Odd said and Aelita smiled and pocketed her phone.

"Try mine," Ulrich said and Odd smiled.

"One, two, three, four, you pretended to change it," Odd said and Ulrich groaned and placed his phone on the table.

"What's Sissi's?" Ulrich asked and Odd chuckled and looked up.

"Your birthday," Odd answered and Ulrich laughed.

"Yumi's?" Aelita asked.

"Same as Sissi's," Odd said and Aelita didn't laugh, "Maintaining a friendship with her is a going to be interesting. I'll be in the shark cage when you two start chumming the water."

* * *

Aelita and Danielle were in their room at the end of the day, ready to go the sleep and neither really could. Danielle rolled over and looked at Aelita's side and Aelita reflected the action.

"You tell Yumi yet?" Danielle asked and Aelita shook her head.

"I never got the chance and Ulrich would have told me if he saw her," Aelita said and Danielle rolled back and looked at the ceiling.

"You thought the first fight was bad," Danielle started and Aelita nodded.

"I tell her I took 'her man'," Aelita said, using air quotes, "Then she'll do what she always does when someone tries to snatch him."

"Get him to like her again and leave him disappointed for another four months," Danielle said and Aelita groaned.

"This is not going to go over well," Aelita said.

"Do you trust that Ulrich will choose you over her?" Danielle asked and rolled over again, and Aelita nodded.

"I do, because this one breaks the pattern a little bit," Aelita said.

"How so?"

"Well, in the past the girl who gets him for a day, it's much more spontaneous and not a slow build. Not the mention at least two of them didn't even remember it," Aelita said and Danielle giggled and rolled to her back again.

"You feel a little guilty?" Danielle asked.

"Of course I do, I'm dating the guy my best friend likes," Aelita answered and Danielle rolled over again.

"Here's the thing, Yumi has been the one giving you advise while never following her own. So if anything, you starting to date Ulrich, she can't really blame you for that because she put the, go and get him tactic in your head," Danielle said and Aelita rolled over and looked at the ceiling.

"Wow, I never thought about it that way," Aelita said with a smile, "Poetically ironic."

"Maybe she'll be more understanding than we think she'll be," Danielle said and rolled over and faced the wall.

"I hope so, but I doubt it," Aelita said and rolled over as well, "night Danny."

"Goodnight," Danny replied and both took nearly an hour to sleep, but neither talked because both believe the other was sound asleep.

* * *

The next day for the new couple was answering the same question over and over again.

"Yes we're dating," Aelita would said.

"Yes we are, person fifty to ask me that," Ulrich responded as more and more people tried to figure out how the development to their relationship had slipped passed everyone. At this rate, Yumi would find out before they ever got the chance to tell her.

"Why do so many people care?" Ulrich asked and Aelita shrugged while leaning against him.

"You are wanted by like half of the girls in the school," Aelita said and Ulrich tried to deny that but at this point it was obvious with some of them glaring at Aelita.

"Are the glares bothering you?" Ulrich asked and Aelita shook her head.

"I've made the entire school jealous, if you're as hot as the rest of the school thinks you are, good thing I ran back into the hall," Aelita said and Ulrich nodded and looked around as some of the students began to leave the school.

Ulrich and Aelita were sitting under a tree in the quad, watching everyone leaving, and everyone else who was staring. They still hadn't seen Yumi all day, so once again never got the chance to tell her in person. They both figured, by know she'd had to have heard it from someone. Probably Sissi who wouldn't miss the opportunity to divulge information about Ulrich.

"I can't believe we haven't seen her at all for two days," Aelita said and Ulrich shrugged and tried to catch her in the crowd leaving.

"At least this relationship went two days before someone tries to stop it," Ulrich said and Aelita nodded to agree.

"Peace and quiet is okay, they could stop staring though," Aelita said and Ulrich chuckled, the vibrations from his stomach rocking her head making her giggle.

"Hey, I've been hearing some pretty crazy rumors," Yumi said from their left away from the thinning crowd leaving through the gates.

'Here we go,' Aeltia said to herself.

"Like what?" Ulrich asked.

"Well, I heard from, pretty much everyone that you two are supposedly dating," Yumi answered and with a slight humor in her voice like it was joke. How do you pop this bubble?

"To clarify, we are," Aelita said bluntly, and almost cringed because she knew it sounded worse than she intended.

"What?" Yumi asked while looking down at them.

"It may be a rumor Yumi, but we've been dating since two days ago," Ulrich said and Yumi stood there looking at them, trying to figure out what to say for how the take it.

"Kiss her," Yumi said.

"Huh?" Aeltia asked.

"Prove it, kiss her, do it," Yumi said quickly while trying to hold back tears.

"Yumi," Ulrich said sympathetically and Yumi looked straight down.

"So, that's why you said sorry," Yumi said and Aelita nodded.

"I'm sorry Yumi," Aelita said softly and Yumi started to walk away then stopped a few feet away and turned around.

"Well, I did say go and get him, whoever you want the him to be," Yumi said as a tear rolled down her right cheek and rolled off onto her shoe.

"You want to stay and talk?" Aelita asked and Yumi shook her head and turned around again, then turned back but continued to walk backwards.

"No, I'm good, I got homework, and I have to watch my brother," Yumi said as more tears fell. The three didn't notice but they were drawing a crowd, "But I'll see you two tomorrow, and the day after that."

"Yumi stay and talk, please," Aelita said and Yumi shook her head and look at the two and felt betrayed, but she wasn't sure who had done it.

"I never moved in, you did," Yumi said and began to walk towards the gate and looked back one more time before rounding the corner and disappearing.

"Why did that feel worse than a fist fight?" Ulrich asked and Aelita sighed and leaned into his stomach more.

"I don't know why, but I know what you mean," Aelita answered.

* * *

"They didn't tell me, they didn't tell you, or any of us," Yumi said two days later while she was pacing in Jeremie's room as he sat on his computer chair and spun around.

"If they want to date each other, who's to say they can't," Jeremie said and Yumi looked down at him and sat on his bed.

"One of the reasons you were trying to free Aelita was to be with her, and now she's completely neglected that," Yumi said and Jeremie shrugged.

"To be honest, I kind of neglected it, not her," Jeremie said and stopped spinning, "Everything with us, sounded great on paper, but the actual relationship part, not so much."

"You two were perfect for each other," Yumi said and Jeremie shook his head.

"No we aren't," Jeremie said bluntly.

"It was so cute watching you two awkwardly do this or that," Yumi said and Jeremie sighed.

"It was fun, and a decent start, but Aelita is a lot different from me than you would think," Jeremie said and looked up at her.

"I guess, but I find myself in a weird position, asking whether or not I should fight for him or cheer them on," Yumi said and Jeremie wasn't sure what she meant.

"Explain that better," Jeremie requested.

"Ulrich's and my history needs no review, but when asking about boys, I told her to just go and get him. So in some weird way, I encouraged this," Yumi said and Jeremie understood now.

"Just do me a favor Yumi," Jeremie said and Yumi asked what the favor was, "Don't interfere."

"It's not like he started dating someone suddenly with no warning signs, there were tons of signs but when you say Ulrich and Aelita, it just doesn't attract suspicion," Yumi said and Jeremie nodded.

"Agreed on that, but now that we see the final result, do the clues add up?" Jeremie asked and Yumi nodded.

"They do," Yumi said, "Which means, it took Aelita months to even follow my advice. Maybe she just wanted to make sure it wasn't a passing feeling. She wanted to go in and get him, when she was very sure it was Ulrich she liked."

"Ulrich's side of the riddle?" Jeremie asked.

"It wasn't like he said yes just to say yes, Ulrich isn't that kind of person, at least I hope not. From what Odd told me, it was actually Ulrich who started the conversation about their situation and where to go with it without any motivation. Ulrich couldn't even do that with me," Yumi said and fell back.

"So they legitimately like each other, it was building for months," Jeremie said.

"Then they both snapped," Yumi said softly and sat up slowly and looked at her feet.

"Leave them be, cheer them on, this is a big deal for both of them," Jeremie said and spun around in his chair again and stopped.

"This may sound strange, but I'm not mad, at either of them. I just realized I'm jealous," Yumi said, "and not even about the relationship."

"Then about what?" Jeremie asked.

"I'm jealous that Aeltia was able to follow the advice that I never followed myself. The thing that hurts the most, is that it actually worked, and all of the years I spent waiting for him to follow the advice I never told him, was a waste. Aelita did, and she got him. Just go and get him, and she did. It took awhile, and she probably fought herself the entire way because she didn't want to risk our friendship."

"At least you realize Aelita actually likes him, and wants him, and she took as long as she did to realize it, only because of you," Jeremie said and Yumi nodded.

"It wasn't anything personal between us," Yumi said, "She just wanted him too."

"So, is that you promising to leave them be?" Jeremie asked.

"No," Yumi answered and Jeremie looked at her.

"I beg you're pardon."

"I'm not taking a sideline here, but I'm not against them. They're my friends, so I'll cheer them on," Yumi said with a slight grin and walked out of Jeremie's room and he chuckled.

"They grow up so fast," Jeremie said to himself playfully and booted is computer.


	12. Shut Up

It didn't take very long for people to stop asking about Ulrich and Aelita, but the staring didn't stop. Aelita had already learned to evade their gaze, and after about a month, even enjoyed them. It's strange when someone looks at you with so much jealous rage, and you learn to like it. It makes you feel good when people are jealous of you.

A month had passed is what surprised Aelita the most. What a fast month. Not a single person had tried to break them up yet; not even Yumi. She was almost certain Yumi would confront Ulrich in private, cry and make him break up with her and so Yumi couldn't date him either. That didn't happen. It shocked her even more that Yumi seemed supportive. Grudgingly supportive but supportive none the less.

Yumi wasn't even nosy about the relationship, she kept her distance from the group more than usual however. She'd leave the library sooner after school with the excuse of she 'needs to go home' or 'watch Hiroki', and her deflections didn't fool anyone, especially when the group knew Hiroki wasn't home, because he was at the school hanging out with Danielle.

Danielle and Hiroki were at the very least on speaking terms again not to long after Aeltia and Ulrich announced they were dating. A month later it was water under the bridge and they were hanging out at lunch again and in the library like before the Milly incident.

"I'm surprised my sister has shown the restraint she has," Hiroki said as him and Danielle were sitting in the library as Danielle read.

"She missed her chance, she had a three year head start after all," Danielle said as she turned a page and kept reading.

"I actually like Ulrich, sure I teased her all the time about him, but I actually feel bad for her," Hiroki said and Danielle sighed.

"It would be one thing if she confessed her feelings and got shot down, this is not the case," Danielle said and Hiroki knocked on her book to get her attention.

"What's wrong, you're kind of snippy right now," Hiroki said and Danielle lowered the book to an elevation where only her eyes were above the top rim of the book.

"I'm trying to read, and your complaining about Ulrich and Aelita more than your sister is," Danielle said and Hiroki just looked over the book into her eyes.

"It makes me think about my stupid mistakes. I could have had you, but I blew that," Hiroki said and Danielle dog eared the page and placed it on the table.

"Please, shut up," Danielle politely said to him, "I know what you're doing. Your trying to make me feel empathic for you, and hopefully if your plan works, I'll place the book on the table and kiss you. The thing is, when you technically had me, you kissed another girl you thought was more worthwhile. I'll be your friend, I have no problem with that, but I refuse to be your silver medal."

Danielle looked Hiroki who just sat there, not sure how to respond. After nearly thirty seconds of silence he slowly grabbed his bag and stood up and left the library. Danielle watched as the door closed behind him and picked up her book and continued reading. She couldn't focus on the words, so she tossed it on the table and exhaled slowly.

'I can't believe I actually said it,' Danielle thought to herself and looked at the door, 'I still want to be with him, but I just feel like it will end in heartache again. I don't want to be with a guy who considers me inferior to another girl.'

Suddenly the door opened again and Hiroki slowly stepped back into the room and Danielle looked over at him as he stepped in front of her again and exhaled.

"For what it's worth, which probably isn't all that much because I'm saying it. You're not a silver medal," Hiroki said and looked down for a moment, the back up "It's easy for me to say Milly started it, and it wasn't my fault, but it would be childish for me to say that. Like it would have been easy for me to not come back into this room and talk to you, but I don't want to run away or avoid things that are hard to do anymore. I should have ran after you when it happened, or not have avoided you so I didn't have to apologize.

"But the truth of the matter is, I'm a coward. To be honest, I'm surprised you even bothered ever talking to me again. At that moment, I was stupid. I'd liked her for so long, I momentarily forget about anything else. I don't deserve a second chance, and it looks like you agree so at least we're in agreement at the very least. You're not a silver medal, and with what happened with Milly, that was me forgetting I already had the gold," Hiroki said and after a moment turned and started to walk out of the library again.

Danielle sat there, watching him leave, and it took everything she had not to say anything as the door closed behind him again.

* * *

"That's the most adorable thing I've ever heard," Aelita said to Danielle a few days after Hiroki said what he did.

"It sounded genuine, but it still just seems like he's settling because he knows Milly isn't going to work out," Danielle said and Aelita just looked across the room.

"Like how Ulrich and I didn't work out? Oh wait, it did," Aelita said and Danielle sighed.

"That's different," Milly said.

"Why?" Aelita.

"Ulrich didn't kiss another girl," Danielle said.

"He's kissed Sissi," Aelita said.

"Probably because he needed a favor," Danielle said and Aelita shrugged.

"Well he still did. I've kissed Jeremie, but what matters is how you both feel about each other in the present," Aelita said and Danielle.

"I feel like, if I give him a second chance, he'll break my heart again, or I'll be paranoid that he will, suffocating him and forcing him away on accident," Danielle said and Aelita stood up and walked across the room and sat down next to her.

"That's shockingly mature what you just said. You're not just worried about your heart breaking, you're worried about breaking his as well," Aelita aid and Danielle nodded.

"So, us not being together, is the most painless way of going about it," Danielle said.

"That's what I thought about Ulrich and me. When I was wasn't sure if I should ask him or not, because I was terrified of the rejection. Or terrified Yumi would hate me," Aelita said.

"Your circumstances were better than mine. He kissed a girl when he kind of had me, while I was watching," Danielle said.

"Here's my advise, give him a second chance," Aelita said and when Danielle opened her mouth Aelita shushed her, "Don't talk. To say what he said, took courage, and he probably isn't expecting you to give him that chance. If you do, he'll never breach that trust again. Sometimes you mess up, before you can improve, and he will."

Danielle looked at her lap as she sat on her bed, trying to find something to say back but couldn't find the words. She looked back up at Aelita and exhaled.

"Do you really think that?" Danielle asked and Aelita nodded.

"I do, I've messed up a lot, and I'm all the better for it. Yumi messed up a lot, and as you can see from that, inaction can be more costly," Aelita said and Danielle nodded.

* * *

Elliot was sitting against the window ledge as he watched the snow fall outside. It had been winter for a few months already, but the snow was now starting to come down. He heard the commotion from the cafeteria in the background and but found relaxing to lean and let the cold glass touch his back. He heard footsteps approaching and saw Tamiya making her way to him so he placed his feet on the ground and met her halfway.

"Hey," Elliot said as she leaned down and kissed her.

"Sorry, I had to print an essay in the library and the printer jammed. Again," Tamiya said and Elliot smiled.

"I would've waited longer if I had to," Elliot said and Tamiya smiled.

"Ever the patient one," Tamiya said held his hand as they went through the lunch line that had toned down during the twenty minutes Elliot was waiting for her.

"Did you hear what Hiroki did?" Elliot asked and Tamiya shook her head, "He confessed everything to Danielle. I guess his sister missing out made him realize he was an idiot."

"What did Danielle say?" Tamiya asked.

"Nothing, she just stared at him. Not sure if that's good or bad to be honest," Elliot answered.

"Are they still in the same biology class?" Tamiya asked.

"They're still lab partners. As what Hiroki says, dreadful class. Awkward silence the whole hour," Elliot answered.

"Guys, Danielle took him back," Milly said as she jogged up next to them.

"What?" Elliot asked.

"Danielle took Hiroki back. I heard it from what's her face during passing period," Milly said.

"Who's what's her face?" Tamiya asked.

"I don't know, that's why she's what's her face," Milly said.

* * *

Last class hour…

Hiroki sat at his lunch table, picking at his food with his fork while looked around the room. No sign of her. He was thinking he should have just kept his mouth shut, not say anything to her. Before they spoke she was sitting at the lunch table. Now it was like after the Milly incident.

Suddenly someone tapped his shoulder and he quickly turned his head and saw Danielle standing behind him.

"Hey," Hiroki said, shocked at she was even there.

"Can we talk? Away from prying eyes and open ears?" Danielle asked and Hiroki took a moment to register and then nodded, sliding his seat back and walking out of the cafeteria with her into the snowy weather.

"What do you want to talk about?" Hiroki said.

"Look, I should have never spoken to you again after what you did, but I did. Am I stupid?" Danielle asked.

"No, you're not," Hiroki answered.

"Rhetorical, but thanks. I should just say no to what you said a few days ago, sit back at the lunch table, and pretend you never said that. But I can't, because you sounded genuine," Danielle said.

"It was, look I," Hiroki started before Danielle gave him a look he recognized, "Rhetorical?" Danielle nodded.

"Will you ever do anything like that again?" Danielle asked and Hiroki didn't respond, "Not Rhetorical."

"No," Hiroki answered, "I was mixed up before, because let's be honest, we weren't really a thing. I know that's not helping my argument, but listen. It still didn't excuse me. Now I want to be a thing, no more flip flopping, second guessing. I'm jumping in with both feet," Hiroki said and Danielle smiled.

"Promise?" Danielle asked.

"I promise, and I'll never do anything to ever harm you…" Hiroki started to say before Danielle leaned up and kiss him.

"Shut up," Danielle said and Hiroki kissed her back as the snow fell around them.

* * *

**Been quite awhile. I've been very busy for the last half a year or so sense I updated. I'll try to get a few more stories updated before I leave. I just enlisted in the army and I'm leaving soon so I'll want even be able to use a computer for three months. Hope you like the chapter.**


	13. Going Home

Now that Hiroki was dating Danielle officially, and Ulrich was dating Aelita, Yumi had never felt so alone in her life. Sure she could be in the same room without event, but the lack of an event seemed to be what bothered her more. The fact she couldn't bring herself to do anything is what bothered her. Yumi wasn't even sure why she couldn't.

Was it out of respect for Aelita, or respect for Ulrich why she didn't try to break them up immediately when they started? It seemed to her the reason she didn't, was more because she knew she couldn't break them up. It wouldn't work like it has in the past when he moves on just long enough to allow himself to notice he's being pursued. Then she'd jump right back in, hold back some tears and confront him, he'd feel guilty, or feel a relationship with Yumi was possible and pursue that, only to have Yumi change her mind a moment later.

Yumi was almost certain even settling with William wouldn't rock him at all like it used to. He wasn't a rival anymore, what did he have to be jealous of? Jeremie and Odd accepted it easily enough, Jeremie shockingly a little more than Odd. Jeremie seemed glad she could find someone. Odd just appeared a little weirded out by the concept. "Ulrich and Aelita, a couple!" he thought, even when he admitted he kind of saw it coming.

The school had already gotten over it after the first month, but the girls still didn't stop staring after two months. Aelita had already figured out that it didn't matter who had him at any given time, you get Ulrich, and it comes with a school year of angry thousand yard stares. Even Odd's exes had that problem. The only people who didn't stare at Odd's exes where other former Odd exes. They were too busy talking about his feet.

Christmas was around the corner, with most of the clearing out for the holidays. Danielle of course was stuck at the school with Aelita. Ulrich wanted to stay but couldn't convince his parents to let him stay or let Aelita go with him so he departed a few days before Christmas as did Odd who hopped a plane home as well. To make matters awkward, the only person to keep Danielle and Aelita company was Yumi.

"That sucks, just started dating and you can't even spend Christmas together," Yumi said as they sat around Aelita and Danielle's dorm.

"It's not all that bad. To be honest, separation is just as important as togetherness. Can't miss each other if you never grant each other that opportunity," Aelita said to Yumi as they sat on her bed with their backs to the wall as the snow came down in buckets outside.

"You think that's true? Part of a healthy relationship is being away from each other sometimes?" Yumi said.

"I get time to do the things I want to do, as does he. And we don't risk the chance of suffocating each other," Aelita answered.

"I'd argue with you, just for the sake of arguing, but why does that almost make complete sense?" Yumi asked.

"Cause it does, hence why I'm reading like I like to do, and your brother is playing games, like he likes to do. We'll call each other at the end of the hour, meet up, get some lunch, and find a cozy place to make out," Danielle said to Yumi from her bed as she read.

"Just like your mother," Yumi said.

"Yep," Danielle said and her phone went off, "My mans still in town, hope daddy calls you soon." Danielle said as she stepped out of the room, zipping up her hoody.

"Daddy, that's still creeps me out," Yumi said with a sigh.

"That Ulrich and I have a daughter a few years younger than us?" Aelita asked.

"Well that too, but that she so casually refers to you two that way," Yumi said.

"It's an inside joke really," Aelita said.

"A very factual inside joke however. What if she didn't use yours or Ulrich. Let's say used mine and Odd's, what would she look like?" Yumi asked.

"A tall Italian with purple streaks and semi curved eyes," Aelita said and looked at Yumi with a smile.

"I can actually picture that, that's so weird," Yumi said.

"Heck, let's throw more genes into the mix. Jeremie and Sissi," Aelita said.

"Umm, let's see. Long blonde hair, contacts, a little taller than Danielle is now. Fashion crazy, kind of mean, and hides the fact she's super intelligent," Yumi said.

"Makes sense. You go," Aelita said.

"I got it. William, and Emilie," Yumi asked and Aelita froze. She already knew exactly how that would look. His name was Elliot.

"Umm, that's a tough one. Straight, brown hair," She started, trying to stay as far away from Elliot's physical description, "Short," Aelita said.

"What, both William and Emilie are pretty tall," Yumi said, "Someone once said that Tamiya's boyfriend, Elliot, is like a few genes away from William. I don't see it."

'Thank god for that,' Aelita said to herself. "Fine, he's tall," Aelita said.

"No, we're still talking about genetic outcomes for a girl," Yumi reminded her.

"Oh, right," Aelita nervously said and Yumi noticed.

"Why are you so nervous?" Yumi asked.

"I'm not," Aelita answered.

"You got nervous when I brought up Elliot after I brought up William and Emilie. Why?" Yumi asked.

"I wasn't nervous," Aelita said.

"He's from the computer isn't he? Danielle made him after Hiroki kissed Milly," Yumi said and Aelita took a moment before she nodded.

"Does anyone else know?" Yumi asked.

"Ulrich does," Aelita answered.

"She tried to make herself a boyfriend. Kind of smart actually, very stupid but smart at the same time," Yumi said, "Why did you keep that from me?"

"Danielle didn't want everyone's trust in her to shatter," Aelita said.

"Why did he go with Tamiya then?" Yumi asked.

"Danielle programmed a mild infatuation code into him intended for her, but mistakenly put Tamiya in the system as the target of the infatuation. She didn't correct it either, mostly because the situation really messed with Milly," Aelita said.

"I'll let that be," Yumi said, "Jim and Ms. Hertz."

* * *

"What do your parents do during the holidays?" Hiroki asked Danielle as they sat with their lunch in the nearly empty cafeteria.

"Nothing really, I'm not missing much," Danielle answered.

"Not even missing your parents?" Hiroki asked.

"A little bit, I don't mind being too far away from home," Danielle answered.

"Will I ever meet them?" Hiroki asked.

"Let's just say they sent me here so they could have more time on their hands," Danielle said and Hiroki looked at her, not sure what to say. Not like she could say who her parents really are.

"That sucks," Hiroki said eventually.

"It does," Danielle said, then thought of something, "That's not true though."

"What?" Hiroki asked.

"When I talk about my parents, I…should be talking in past tense," She said to Hiroki.

"Like they're not your parents anymore?" Hiroki asked.

"No, because they're dead," Danielle said.

"What?"

"My parents died a month before I transferred here. They got in a taxi, that got side swiped by a truck, rolled over, and got slammed by another car. They're dead," Danielle said and Hiroki didn't know what to say. He couldn't say anything at all.

"I…" he started to say, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"That's not the first impression I wanted to make, and when you seemed to think my parents were cool it got harder to say" Danielle said and looked at her food.

"Why were you transferred here?" Hiroki asked.

"Well, my parents left me money, a lot of money. I could either go live with some family I've never met, or a boarding school. I chose the latter," Danielle said and looked back up at him.

"Have you told anyone else?" Hiroki asked.

"Just Aelita," Danielle said.

"I'm glad you told me," Hiroki said and reached out for her hand. Danielle took it, then let it go and continued eating her lunch. She was disappointed and proud of herself for the same reason strangely. It was her first successful lie.

* * *

At the end of the day, Danielle told Aelita what she had told Hiroki earlier in the day. Aelita agreed that might be for the best considering they don't really exist. Not in way that was believable at least. When Danielle finished explaining her day, she asked Aelita about hers.

"Well Ulrich called not to long after you left, and I could see Yumi flinching whenever he'd talk lovey dovey to me," Aelita said and Danielle giggled, "It's not funny. Yumi is still my friend, and I don't want to upset her more than I already have."

"Good luck with that, and I didn't take Ulrich for a lovey dovey guy," Danielle said Aelita nodded, knowing that was sadly inevitable about Yumi, and ignored the lovey dovey comment.

"Doesn't mean I can't actively try not to. I could leave the room when he calls, not kiss him in front of her, that kind of stuff," Aelita said and Danielle shook her head.

"No, you need to kiss him in front of her. If you don't it makes her think she still has some sway on him. If it bothers her, then she needs to actively avoid it, not you and Ulrich," Danielle said and Aelita looked at her, not sure how to reply to that. Since when did Danielle get so defensive of her?

"You've come so far, you're giving me advise now," Aelita said and Danielle giggled.

"I'm a quick learner," Danielle answered.

"Apparently."

* * *

Elliot was sitting on the bench in the quad. He'd been sitting there for so long the snow had already covered both his feet. If he sat there any longer he would be the perfect frame for a snowman. His breath was hanging in the air, and he watched it hover and evaporate in front of him. He was cold and shivering, but refused to leave the bench and go inside to warm up. He didn't want to move.

Hiroki was walking through the hall and casually looked out the window and looked ahead again. Stopping he looked back and saw Elliot sitting there alone in the cold. Zipping up his jacket Hiroki jogged outside to the bench and stood in front of him. Elliot lifted his head up and didn't have his usual smile that made the girls of the school so fond of him. Nothing of his usual charisma was present. He had the look of a boy who was just told something he couldn't believe, paralyzing him where he heard it. Unfortunately he heard it outside on a bench in the middle of December.

"Dude, it's like five degrees out here?" Hiroki said and Elliot said he was very aware of weather conditions.

"I like the cold, I think I'll stay outside," Elliot said and Hiroki pushed the snow off the bench and sat down next to him.

"Dude, you're typically in the library with Tamiya making other girls jealous. Where's Elliot, the guy who can make girls swoon with a smile?" Hiroki said to cheer him up but wasn't doing very well.

"I can make other girls swoon, but I only want to make one girl swoon," Elliot said and Hiroki nodded, knowing he meant Tamiya, "I can't even do that."

"What are you talking about?" Hiroki asked and Elliot looked at him.

"She broke up me two hours ago, she was sitting exactly where you're sitting," Elliot said and Hiroki paused, not sure how to respond or if it was appropriate to respond at all.

"I'm sorry man…" Hiroki said and found he only planned the word he just spoke and couldn't continue.

"That's what she said, 'I'm sorry'" Elliot said.

"Let's go inside," Hiroki said and Elliot stood up and started to walk away from the bench and toward the gate, "Where are you going!" Hiroki shouted after him as he jogged to meet him at the gate where he stopped.

Elliot turned and looked at him, and didn't speak for nearly ten seconds. Hiroki was waiting for him to say something, but after fifteen seconds he couldn't stay silent.

"Where are you going?" Hiroki asked. Elliot turned around and walked through the gate.

"Home," Elliot said and turned onto the sidewalk out of Hiroki's line of vision.

* * *

**I'll try to update another story or do another chapter before I leave but I can't promise anything. If I don't do anything before the end of January, it's because I'm at Basic Combat Training for the army. Should be fun, I might be able to update more while I'm at AIT. If you don't know what AIT is, it's where you go after basic to learn whatever job you signed up for. I'll be doing EOD training. If you don't know what EOD is, watch Hurt Locker.**


	14. Reborn

**_It's been awhile, sorry but being in the Army hasn't given me much free time. My training is in two locations, first here in Alabama, then in Florida. I'm training to be an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist). What I've heard from my army buddies who are already there, I'll have four weeks till I get into school down there to continue training. First thing I'm doing is getting married by the way, and I'm looking forward to that. Anyway, I'm back for a little while. R & R._**

Tamiya was sitting in the library reading a book she was thinking about checking out. Turning the page and scanning down the rows of words she decided would get it and stood up to go check it out at the desk. Placing the book on the counter she reached into her pocket to get her id card so it could scan as the librarian stamped the check out stub under the cover. The scanner made a 'bing' sound, indicating it scanned properly and she thanked her before turning straight into Hiroki.

"Why?" Hiroki asked her, making her step back from the shock of him suddenly appearing.

"Why what?" Tamiya asked, as she slid the book into her messenger bag and placed the flap back over the pouch.

"Why did you break up with him?" Hiroki asked and Tamiya sighed while shaking her head.

"Seriously, you too. First Milly bothers me with that, then Aelita, a few girls thanked me for making him available however," Tamiya started to say.

"Answer the question," Hiroki said bluntly.

"He's suffocating me. All he ever wants to do is hang out with me. I know that sounds like every girls dream, but after awhile I need some space to breathe and do some things that I want to," Tamiya answered.

"Do you have any idea where he is?" Hiroki asked.

"Probably in his room sulking," Tamiya said.

"No he's not. He walked out of the school gates about three hours ago. No one knows where he is. He said he was going home, but he lives quite a ways away," Hiroki said and Tamiya didn't seem too concerned about it.

"Maybe he'll catch a train to the coast and take a boat to the island," Tamiya said and Hiroki wanted to slap her.

"How can you act like you don't care?" Hiroki said and Tamiya groaned and shoved her way passed him.

At the end of the day there was still no sign of Elliot anywhere. The people who were most frantically looking for him were the girls who liked him, hoping to the be the rebound girl. The next morning there was still no sign of him, and then he didn't show up for class. The school day passed and Hiroki told Mr. Delmas about the situation and the police were dispatched into the city to look for him. They put his picture on every bus station, train station and cab dispatch and no one found anything.

It took Daniel till the end of the day to here that Elliot left but she had no idea where he went. Until Hiroki told her he was 'going home.'

* * *

"Going home? You don't think?" Aelita asked her and Danielle nodded to say it was the only thing that made sense.

"It has to be," Danielle said and Aelita called Jeremie to ask him to check if anything unusual was happening with the computer. First he found it strange his computer was disconnected, so first he had to reconnect.

"He's in the lab. The computer is doing something, so he's probably in Lyoko," Jeremie said and Danielle grabbed her coat as Aelita grabbed hers. Jeremie sent a message to the Yumi for her to meet them in the lab and find out what was going on.

It was strange walking into the factory when they hadn't been there for several months. It looked even more deserted than usual. The elevator door closed in front of them and they all stood quietly as it descended. Everyone was quite on the way down, Jeremie standing between Aelita and Yumi, creating a buffer zone. Both said they were fine before, but he knew better than to believe them.

The door opened and they all stepped out, Jeremie taking a seat at the computer monitor and checking to see if he could track him down in the computer. After a few minutes he narrowed him down in sector five. Danielle stayed with Jeremie as the others entered Lyoko to pull him out.

"Why does he even know about the lab?" Jeremie asked himself and looked at Danielle, hoping she could give him an answer.

"He's like me, he's from the computer," Danielle said and Jeremie groaned.

"You created him, didn't you?" Jeremie asked and she nodded, "I don't have time to ask why. Guys, find him, he shouldn't be too far ahead."

Aelita and Yumi stopped in a room of sector five and looked around. It was a massive room, the blocks that move and create the boundaries were smoothed against the walls. Some created a path that lead to Elliot sitting in the center of the room.

"Elliot," Aelita said first, and he turned over his shoulder and stood up to face them.

"Hey," He said sadly, looking at them blankly. He wasn't even wearing anything different. He looked exactly how he did in the real world.

"Why did you come here?" Yumi asked.

"I wanted to go home," Elliot answered and turned around and looked at the room.

"It isn't the end of the world," Yumi said and began to walk over to him. When she was a few feet away she stopped, "Come back to Kadic."

"What's the point? I can't stop thinking about her," Elliot said and a screen appeared in front of him and he began to type into it. "I've erased, every memory I have of her, but I still remember her. I still feel a need to be with her," Elliot said and pounded the screen, "I just want to forget!"

"Calm down, I know why you can't forget. You're programmed to love her, if you remove that program, you'll be fine."

"Really?" Elliot asked desperately, turning around and looking at her.

"It true, let's look for it," Aelita said and walked over to the screen and began to look for the infatuation program as Danielle stood next to Jeremie in the lab.

"Looks like Aelita is taking care of things," Jeremie said and Danielle looked over his shoulder to the screen.

"What is she doing?" Danielle asked.

"Looks like she's removing the infatuation bug you attached to him," Jeremie said and Danielle gasped.

"Don't let her do that!" Danielle shouted and jumped for the controls.

"Why not?" Jeremie asked as she tried to grab the head set.

"That bug is attached to the human profile tree I created. The only way to remove it, is to delete the entire tree from him core programming," Danielle said and Jeremie wasn't sure what that meant.

"It's means he won't be human anymore, he'll be another program. The program the human programming tree is attached to, is my original programming. He'll be xana," Danielle said and Jeremie turned on the headset.

"Here it is," Aelita said and back away from the screen, "I'll let you do it."

Elliot slowly walked over to the screen and exhaled slowly, looking at the word delete. He began to reach for it as Jeremie started talking.

"Aelita, don't delete the program, I don't have time to explain but don't do it!" Jeremie shouted and before she could stop him he pressed delete.

A moment later Elliot collapsed to the floor and Aelita kneeled next to him to see what was wrong.

"Aelita get away from him!" Jeremie shouted before Elliot vanished into thin air.

"What just happened?" Yumi asked.

"We need to get you out, now!" Jeremie shouted. Before the entire room suddenly glowed red. Little screens appeared with the eye of xana on them before Elliot reappeared where he was. He was surrounded by a black mist, that cloaked his entire body. His eyes were fire red. Pulling one arm over his head, mist began to form and spiral above him before he pulled his arm behind him and fired the black mist at Aelita, instantly devirtualizing her.

Yumi threw her fans and they slashed through him, hitting nothing like she was in fact fighting mist. Yumi's fans ripped through again moment later, and the fan now had a black mist attached to them. When Yumi caught the fan, the mist began to spread over her body till it engulfed her. A moment later the mist made her explode.

"That's one way to get them out," Jeremie said.

* * *

"So, let me get this straight. Xana's back?" Yumi asked Danielle who shrugged.

"Kind of. I'm xana, he's a carbon copy. He can exist in lyoko, but can't control it. I removed that from my programming, so if he's a copy of me now, he doesn't have it either," Danielle explained.

"How do we stop him?" Yumi asked.

"Technically we don't have to. See he doesn't control Lyoko, so he can't do what I used to," Danielle said, "But I would imagine the only way is to reattach his human programming. That won't be easy," Danielle said and stood up from her bed to explain.

"I would have to completely recreate his profile again from scratch, then find a means to attach it to him. Attaching the profile to one of Odd's arrows crossed my mind, but we can't touch him. See he's a specter now, what he hit you with was just programs, nothing actually physical like you inflict to your enemies. He might be able to create monsters, but I can't be certain."

"What if we gave your powers back, could you stop him?" Jeremie asked and everyone looked at him.

"Possibly, that would give me control of my old tenticled friend and I could attach the program to him. But the problem is, the control of lyoko is were a majority of my original codes lie. If I regain control, I might become xana again, or I might just fail to function considering the human program and the lyoko control program are so radically different they'll cancel each other out and I'll just shut down because I would technically have two operating systems."

"Is it possible you remain who you are, and control lyoko at the same time?" Aelita asked and Danielle shrugged.

"There's only one way to find out, and I'm not doing it," Danielle said, "I don't want to go back."

"We can't just leave him there," Yumi said and Danielle sat down and tried to think of another way.

"What I just explained is the only way," Danielle said.

"What we attached fail safes?" Jeremie asked and Danielle looked at him.

"What kind?"

"Say you recover your original programming, plus an objective your programming is meant to do. Then once that objective is complete, another program to delete the control program," Jeremie suggested.

"It could work in theory, problem is it didn't work the first time. When Waldo programmed me the first time, he added similar fail safes. When I became self aware, I removed them. If I become xana again, I would most likely do that again," Danielle said and Jeremie looked at his feet. He was out of ideas as well.

"For the mean time, we need something to explain his disappearance," Aelita said and everyone looked around and nodded. The entire group had almost forgotten about that.

"Let's just say his parents picked him up, you can create voices with the computer right?" Yumi asked Jeremie who nodded. "His dad called, he's home, call off the search."

"I guess that will work on short notice. All we have to do is mention it to one girl and it'll be around the entire school in an hour," Danielle said.

"We're figure something out about him, but I'm not going to reattach my programming, it's too dangerous."


	15. Elliot

**_My training is going well here in insanely humid Florida( the panhandle). I'm happily married now, living with my wife on base. So I go to school, learn about explosives and what makes them go boom for eight hours, then come home, relax for a few hours go to sleep and do it again, so naturally I don't have much time to write. Read and Review please._**

* * *

For about a week Tamiya wasn't very popular at Kadic academy. At first most of the female populous of the school were quite grateful she broke up with Elliot, but when they found out she upset him so much with the break up that he went back home, most hated her for removing one of the most eligible bachelors in the school. The rest had already forgiven Aelita for the same crime a few months ago, and were not afraid to jump onto someone new to hate.

Tamiya had learned to get to her room as fast as possible when the final bell rang. What bothered her more was the fact when he left, she realized a little separation was all they really needed in the end. So naturally as impulsively as she broke up with him, she wanted him back just as impulsively. His phone went straight to voice mail and he hadn't turned it back on in a week. It was like he feel off the face of the earth.

Hiding in her room had become Tamiya's hobby as of recent, considering it allowed her to avoid the scorn until that tide passed. It also allowed her to mope in private about impulsively breaking up with a guy who's only crime was wanting to be around her too much. A week ago she felt free to be alone for a few days, now she just felt alone.

Milly came in earlier today to catch her holding her phone in her hand, hoping he'd check his voice mail and call her back, just to tell her he was fine. Checking her voice mail to see she had no new messages, so closed her phone and sighed while placing her face against her pillow.

"He won't call you, hope you know," Milly said and Tamiya groaned and looked up at her.

"Why won't he, I've left him like, ten tearful, pour my heart out messages, two pissed off ones, and then one of me apologizing about those two pissed off ones," Tamiya said while sitting up and wiping her eyes.

"You broke up with him for being clingy, and now you're far more clingy than he was," Milly said with shrug and sat down on her bed, tossing her bag next to her.

"He was such a nice guy, and I left him because I wanted to be alone for a little. I didn't even think about just telling him that, just telling him how I felt. It didn't even have to be a break, maybe one day, a week, we just do our own thing, it was that simple and instead of saying that I said we're over," Tamiya said and punch her pillow, "I'm such a bitch."

"Least you admit it," Milly said and fell back onto her bed, placing her ear phone in her ears and pressing play.

* * *

In the lab, the scanner opened, a body cloaked in the mist that poured out. A hand gripped the entrance and pulled itself from the scanner and stepped into the room. Slowly the figure walked to the elevator and pressed up, taking it to the top floor of the factory. Exiting the elevator the figure walked up the stairs and left the factory across the bridge and stopped above the manhole.

Taking the sewers to the woods inside the academy walls the figure made it's way through the trees and into the quad where students turned to face it as it walked.

"Elliot, I thought you went home," A student said as Elliot didn't even respond as he walked passed the group of students and kept moving toward the dorms.

"I know what you're doing, tell that bitch off!" Another girl shouted to him, and Elliot again ignoring it.

Taking the stairs to the second floor, he slowly walked down the hallway toward a particular room. When was a few rooms down the hallway Tamiya stepped out of her room backwards with her bag over her shoulder, locking her door before she saw Elliot and dropped her keys on the ground.

"Elliot?" Tamiya asked as Elliot walked passed her as if she wasn't there, "Elliot wait," Tamiya said and ran in front of him, making him come to a full stop.

"Where have you been, I heard you went home. Have you been getting my messages?" Tamiya asked and Elliot pushed her out of the way and took a few stepped before Tamiya jumped in front of him again.

"Don't ignore me. I'm sorry, can we at least talk about it?" Tamiya asked before Elliot grabbed her arm and electrocuted her, then let her arm go and watched her drop to the floor unconscious. With her out of the way he stepped over her body and walked down the hall to Aelita's and Danielle's room and kicked open the door.

"Elliot?" Aelita asked before Elliot grabbed her by her throat and pinned her to the wall.

"Where is the original?" Elliot asked and Aelita tried to inhale but gasped as she tried kicking herself free and pulling on his wrist. He pulled her back and slammed her back against the wall and repeated the question.

"What are you talking about?" Aelita gasped.

"The original, my creator?" Elliot asked before Aelita's phone rang on her bed. Leaning down without dropping Aelita he picked up the phone and looked to see it was a text from Danny saying she'd be in the library, and if Hiroki came to their room to send him in her direction. Elliot smiled and smashed her phone before he threw Aelita against the wall, her releasing a shriek of pain as Elliot made his way to the library, leaving Aelita writhing in tears, and Tamiya unconscious in the hallway still.

As Elliot began to walk down the stairs Aelita crawled out of her room, dragging herself out to get help before Elliot got to Danielle. Aelita got about halfway through the hallway before Hiroki stepped into the hallway from the stairwell.

"Hiroki!" Aelita shouted, making him jump and look down and quickly run over to her.

"Aelita, what happened?" Hiroki asked.

"Don't worry about me, go help Danielle, she's in the library, go!" Aelita shouted then had to shout again and push him to get him moving. As Hiroki ran down the stairs, Ulrich was walking up, and he quickly told him to hurry and help Aelita and Ulrich started to run.

"Aelita!" Ulrich shouted, bursting through the swinging doors and kneeling next to her, "What happened, who did this?"

"Elliot is back, he's going after Danielle for some reason, go help her," Aelita said to Ulrich who shook his head.

"I'm not leaving you like this," Ulrich said and Aelita used her remaining strength pull herself to her feet and lean against the wall.

"I'm fine, I'll help Tamiya, you go help Danny, go," Aelita said and Ulrich reluctantly ran off to help, "She's in the library!"

Danielle took her usual seat in the library, waiting for Hiroki to show up so they could get some studying in before class. Looking at her phone and wondering what was taking Aelita so long to reply she closed her phone and placed it on her bag before she saw Elliot walk into the library, the door swinging shut behind him.

"How in the…" Danielle asked herself as she ducked down under her table and quietly moved behind a book case and peered from around it. She didn't know how he was back but felt it was a safe wager to say he wasn't back for a good reason. She watched As Elliot slowly examined around the bookcases for her, and she moved to mirror his actions and dodge his gaze.

Peeking too soon, Danielle was almost certain he saw her and when she peered again he was gone. Knowing immediately that wasn't a good thing she decided her best choice was to run for the door before he appeared somewhere. Moving to an all out sprint she was a few feet from the door before she screamed in pain from being shocked and hit the floor hard, her momentum making her slid.

"Danielle," Hiroki said as he ran in and kneeled next to her before he looked up and got sent back through the door by Elliot's foot, slamming against the wall and falling to the ground.

Before Danielle could even get to her feet Elliot grabbed her by her wrist and shocked her again, this time causing her to fall unconscious. Elliot picked her up and placed her over his shoulder and proceeded to walk out of the library, passed Hiroki who slowly followed, still recovering from his blow.

"Elliot, put her down now," Hiroki said and Elliot ignored him before Hiroki caught up and grabbed his shirt. Elliot spun around and grabbed Hiroki by his throat.

"Let them go!" Ulrich shouted as he charged, only to have Hiroki thrown at him. They collided as Ulrich was in mid step, both sent sliding across the floor to a stop nearly ten meters away. Elliot turned and continued to walk as Hiroki struggled to get to his feet.

"Danielle!" Hiroki shouted as Ulrich coughed as he pulled himself up with the support of the wall.

"Hiroki, get your sister, we'll take care of him," Ulrich said as started to walk after them before Hiroki grabbed his arm.

"You sound like you know what is going on. As long as he has Danielle, I'm not going to be calm and let you handle it," Hiroki said and Ulrich nodded, while figuring they could just run a return when they took care of things and Hiroki would never remember. Ulrich pulled out his phone and sent a text to the others to let them know what happened and that for whatever the reason Danielle was his target.

* * *

The elevator opened at the top floor as Danielle's eyes slowly opened. She noticed she was being held, and it took a few more moments to remember why. Elliot stepped onto the elevator and pressed down and as the elevator door closed Hiroki swung down from the rope a few moments before Ulrich and rolled into the elevator, Ulrich getting cut off as he missed the door.

Elliot threw Danielle to the ground and grabbed Hiroki by his collar and slammed him against the wall as the elevator passed the lab and kept going down. Hiroki kicked him in the stomach then managed a higher kick in the face, making Elliot drop him. Hiroki attempted to spear tackle him but only got grabbed and sent into the scanner room a moment after the elevator door opened.

All three scanners were open and ready for virtualazation. Elliot turned to grab Danielle who was no longer in the elevator. Elliot turned to find her and noticed she snuck around and dragged Hiroki into a scanner and jumped into one herself as the door stopped him from grabbing her. Elliot slammed his fist against the door and quickly jumped in the available scanner and followed them into lyoko.


	16. The Last Return

Hiroki virtualized above the ground in the forest sector and fell to the ground. His feet hit first but he wobbled upon landing and slid into the grass and looked around himself.

"What just happened?" Hiroki asked aloud only to have Danielle land next to him a moment later, "Danielle, where are we?"

"No time to explain, we need to run," Danielle said and helped him to his feet. Looking around the area she saw a tower in the distance and figured that was their best bet for now. As they started to run she saw a figure forming in the sky and saw Elliot land and turn to them.

"Danielle run," Hiroki said, stopping and turning toward Elliot.

"Hiroki," Danielle started.

"No, run. He wants you. You know some things I don't know, you do what you need to do I'll buy some time, go," Hiroki said and Danielle saw another body forming and Ulrich hit the ground and super sprinted to intercept Elliot. As Ulrich came around Elliot's side he was clotheslined and sent sprawling across the ground by him own momentum.

Ulrich slid for a few seconds before propelling himself back to his feet and landing next to Hiroki and Danielle.

"Any ideas Danny?" Ulrich asked and Danielle reluctantly nodded.

"My core programming, but…" Danielle said and Ulrich turned to her.

"You won't turn into xana again, you'll remain in control," Ulrich said and Danielle

"There is no way of knowing if I will," Danielle said and Ulrich smiled.

"I know you're stronger than that, do what you need to do, it's your call," Ulrich said then looked at Hiroki and said, "Go with her, I'll do what I can," then charged Elliot as Hiroki and Danielle took off for the tower.

When Ulrich was half way Elliot snapped his fingers and a tank appeared to his right and started to roll at Ulrich.

"Damn," Ulrich said as he rolled away from the tank that opened and fired at him. Rolling out of the way of the blast Ulrich immediately had to block a blow from Elliot who was now on the offensive. Ulrich kicked him back and threw a sword at the tank that closed to block the shot. Elliot came back and dodged Ulrich's swings and when he couldn't avoid turned to smoke and slid across the ground and came to his sword and reappeared. Elliot bent down and grabbed the sword and swung it a few times as Ulrich super sprinted at him.

Danielle and Hiroki ran into the tower and Hiroki kept running and almost ran straight into the hole but was grabbed by Danielle before he fell.

"Thanks, now what?" Hiroki asked before Danielle looked down and smiled.

"Down we go," She said and jumped, grabbing Hiroki's hand as she fell. Hiroki swore to himself as he fell of the edge and a few moment later found himself out of the woods and in sector five.

"Are you ever going to tell me where we are?" Hiroki asked as he looked around at the blocks and shapes.

"Now is not the time, we have to get to the core," Danielle said and started to run, but then stopped when she noticed he wasn't following, "Come on."

"Fine, but you owe me an explanation when this is over," Hiroki said and ran with her deeper into sector five.

* * *

Ulrich had already figured out this was a losing fight on his end and he was just burning time. Elliot couldn't be touched, every time he was about to hit him he turned into smoke. The tank wasn't making matters easier. Elliot seemed to be enjoying the fight before he made an expression that looked like he just heard bad news.

"They're almost there, good," Elliot said and vanished from the area entirely. Ulrich looked around, looking for an ambush but saw nothing but the tank about to fire again. Dodge rolling the shot Ulrich got to his feet and super sprinted to the tank and slid under the eye and slashed it as he passed by, it exploding a few moments later as he ran for the tower himself.

"Ulrich, you there?" He heard Jeremie say through the head set.

"Where did Elliot go, he just vanished," Ulrich said as Jeremie was checking over lyoko to track everyone as Odd and Yumi entered the scanners.

"Not sure but I've sent in back up. Danielle and Hiroki are almost to the core…wait, Elliot is already there," Jeremie said and looked over the data for a moment before he cursed aloud.

"What?"

"Elliot has almost full control over lyoko. He's not nearly as powerful as Danny at her best, but he can create monsters and attack our world all the same. I'm sending the orb," Jeremie said as Odd and Yumi stopped next to Ulrich as the orb arrived and engulfed them before falling back into the digital sea.

"How much further?" Hiroki asked as they kept running through a corridor.

"Not much further, we're almost to the core. If I can get there, I can summon the scyphozoa and remove his operating system," Danielle said as she ran around the corner and into the circular room Elliot stood in when he deleted his infatuation bug.

When Danielle crossed into the room the corridor sealed, trapping Hiroki and leaving Danielle by herself. Danielle slammed her fists against the wall.

"Hiroki!" Danielle shouted, but slowly then started to step backwards before getting hit from behind by Elliot, slamming her into the wall.

"My hypothesis was correct, I calculated you'd come here in this event," Elliot said and grabbed her arm and flung her into the center of the room, "I took the liberty of summoning it for you."

Danielle looked above her and saw the scyphozoa slowly floating down like a jelly fish toward her. Danielle got to her feet and fired a energy ball at Elliot, hitting him square in the chest mostly because it caught him off guard.

"I should have known you have a few tricks," Elliot said and before turning into black mist and floating across the ground before reforming next to her and holding her by her throat. The scyphozoa slowly approached and Danielle tried in vain to be released from his grasp. The tentacles grabbed her and Elliot let go and took a step back to watch.

A moment later the wall that trapped Hiroki was blown open, Elliot covering his face as the blocks vanished and Hiroki stood at the doorway and walked in.

"Danielle!" Hiroki shouted as Elliot smiled before turning into mist and flying at him. Elliot took solid form only for Hiroki to duck under him and keep running.

"No!" Elliot shouted and took mist form again and charged as Hiroki used his ability he discovered a few moments ago. Light formed at his palm as he lunged into the air and he cocked his fist back to punch the scyphozoa as Elliot reformed in front of him. Hiroki swung and struck Elliot in the chest, sending him sprawling back and slamming into the scyphozoa. The force made it drop Danielle who collapsed to the ground without any sign of consciousness.

Elliot hit the ground below the scyphozoa as Hiroki landed between him and Danielle. Hiroki hands continued to glow and he looked at them and smiled.

"I don't know how I'm doing it, but I'm so glad I can," Hiroki said before the they heard footsteps. Ulrich, Odd and Yumi ran into the room, Yumi stopping at Danielle as the other two stood next to Hiroki.

"Do I really need to do this again?" Elliot asked as mist formed around his hands.

"No, we have a better idea," Odd said and fired a laser arrow that passed straight through Elliot and hit the scyphozoa instead.

"You already know that won't work," Elliot said.

"You weren't my target," Odd said as the scyphozoa grabbed Elliot.

"Is Danielle up?" Ulrich asked while he turned around and Yumi shook her head.

"He did some damage before we got here, Jeremie what did he do?" Yumi asked.

"I'm still working on that…it started to take her core programming, but it looks like that connection was removed before it was complete," Jeremie said just before the room shook.

"I didn't need everything," Elliot said before the scyphozoa dropped him, "just the xana part, she's one hundred percent human now, problem is, she has no operating system," Elliot said and fired to burst of black mist that Ulrich dodged but Odd didn't.

"Oh come on, every move we make he sees coming so plans for it," Ulrich said as Odd exploded and woke up in a scanner.

"All I need is one more thing, and I'll be in complete control," Elliot said and fired two more, Ulrich blocked it with one sword that was engulfed, forcing him to drop it before it engulfed him as well. Yumi was hit leaving only Hiroki and Ulrich.

Behind Elliot as the scyphozoa floated away a ball of red light floated up. Elliot touched it but nothing happened.

"Only she can open this. It contains the controls of lyoko," Elliot said as he started to walk toward them.

"Stay away from her!" Hiroki shouted before his fist were glowing white light. Hiroki charged him full sprint only to get slapped off the walkway effortlessly and falling into the abyss.

"Hiroki!" Ulrich shouted before he looked back at Danielle and had an idea. Ulrich swung to devirtualize Danielle but was stopped by Elliot before the sword struck. Elliot kicked him then kicked Danielle's lifeless body through the red ball, shattering as she rolled off the platform and into the abyss.

Floating where the ball was, was now a yellow light. The controls of lyoko. Elliot smiled as Ulrich charged him only to be sent sprawling into the corridor which sealed shut again. When Elliot turned around to face the yellow orb, Hiroki pulled himself back onto the platform. Hiroki saw the yellow orb and took off running toward it as Elliot did the same.

Elliot shot a burst of energy at him buy Hiroki deflected it and continued running till they both dove at the same time. Both were completely horizontal in the air, on arm outreached for the orb that Hiroki's finger touched first. Hiroki vanished as Elliot hit the ground and rolled to his feet.

"No!" Elliot shouted before Hiroki appeared where he vanished, his entire body glowing yellow. Hiroki looked at the wall that vanished, allowing Ulrich to step through.

"Hiroki?" Ulrich asked as Elliot fired a blast that caught Ulrich off guard and finished him.

"That wasn't very nice," Hiroki said before two blocks appeared at Elliot feet, locking him in. Elliot turned to mist but even that didn't release him. Elliot over his shoulder and saw Danielle floating unconscious toward him and softly landed next to Hiroki.

"Jeremie, how do I help her?" Hiroki asked.

"Get the squid down here, I'll take care of the rest," Jeremie answered as the scyphozoa floated down and Elliot looked at it terrified.

"No!" Elliot said and frantically tried to break his binds. The left block began to crack slowly before exploding and the right followed in suit. Elliot charged Hiroki who created a room that surrounded him and sealed with the scyphozoa inside.

"She'll be okay, right?" Hiroki asked.

"She'll be just fine," Jeremie answered as the scyphozoa grabbed Elliot.

* * *

When Danielle woke up she was in the scanner and saw Hiroki's relieved face standing over her. She blinked a few times from the brightness of the scanner, before she took Hiroki's outreached hand to be pulled out and into the room. Around them were Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, Odd, Aelita, and Elliot. She saw Elliot and fell as she tried to run but was caught by Hiroki before she did.

"He's back to normal, I had the scyphozoa put his human programming back, without the bug of course," Jeremie said and Elliot nodded as he leaned against a scanner.

"I'm not entirely sure what happened," Elliot said and Odd tapped his back.

"Don't worry, we'll make it all better," Odd said and looked at Jeremie who nodded.

"We running a return?" Yumi asked.

"Yeah, Elliot did attack Tamiya, so we kind of need that to not of happened," Aelita said, leaning against Ulrich for support since she was still in pain, "Plus, my back is killing me."

"I attacked Tamiya? Why would I do that?" Elliot asked.

"It never happened," Jeremie said as they all boarded the elevator. Jeremie sat at down at the terminal and placed his hand over the enter key he had prepared before he left for the scanner room.

"Return to the past now."

* * *

**It's a been a busy few months. Didn't make the cut at EOD school, but I can try again in a year. Training elsewhere for a new job now. Next chapter should be released soon. **


	17. Winter

**Finally have internet and my laptop at the same time in months. I'm at my first duty station now, in Hawaii! Anyway, hopefully I can update some of the stories that have been piling up. This is finally the ending of this story.**

* * *

Tamiya opened her door and stepped out into the hallway, shutting her door behind her to lock it. She placed her keys in her pocket before turning and seeing Elliot leaning against the wall waiting for her.

"Elliot?" Tamiya asked and ran over to him and stopped herself from diving on him with a hug.

"Hey," Elliot started and pushed himself off the wall and stood in front of her.

"When did you get back, are you staying?" Tamiya asked.

"Yeah I'm staying, I didn't move, I went to a wedding back home," Elliot said and Tamiya sighed.

"I understand why I wasn't invited," Tamiya said and Elliot nodded.

"Look, I've already been told by Milly, you'd take me back in a heartbeat. Problem is, I don't want you back," Elliot said and Tamiya made an expression like Elliot slapped her, "Not now at least."

"Oh…well, that sucks," Tamiya said, making a small laugh to hide shock.

"I need to be alone, until I figure a few things out. It's nice to be able to make up my own mind," Elliot said with a smile before walking passed her, leaving her standing alone in the hallway. When Elliot was almost completely out of ear shot she snapped back to reality.

"Elliot!" Tamiya shouted, making him stop and turn around, "Can we at least be friends?"

"Sure," Elliot said, before stepping passed the swinging doors.

* * *

"You were the one who took the keys?" Danielle asked Hiroki while they in the rec room with each other.

"I had no idea what it was, all I knew was that he wanted it, and that was a bad thing," Hiroki said and Danielle smiled at him.

"Where did Jeremie place the keys after he you removed them?" Danielle asked.

"Same place you put them the first time," Hiroki answered and Danielle smiled in relief and looked down when something occured to her.

"You know I was technically saying dead right?" Danielle asked and Hiroki shook his head, "Removing my operating system is like removing my soul. I'm dead without it, or I might as well be."

"Technically you're not even alive," Hiroki said and Danielle sighed.

"I suppose that is true. It's such a relief now that you know everything. I felt so bad having to lie," Danielle said and Hiroki shrugged.

"I'm not mad, I know why you had to. But you could have at least told me you weren't human," Hiroki said and looked at her, "Let's say we get married, we'd have adopt cause I severely doubt anything works in that department."

"You're probably right," Danielle said.

She had her first period two months later.

* * *

_Fifteen years later…_

Ulrich knew it would happen this way. He had watched her so closely for weeks, never letting his eyes off of her. His phone was always on him, but the day he didn't charge it and shuts down without him knowing is the day it happens. Ulrich wondered why he hadn't received a call or text all day. Around noon, when he had been away from her for hours, was the moment he pulled his phone out of his pocket to discover it had shut down.

Ulrich frantically found the nearest phone he could borrow from a stranger and call. She didn't answer. So he called Danielle who told him to hurry, she needed him. Ulrich caught a cab and rode to the hospital. He didn't even count the money he threw at the driver, but he knew it was well over the fair. Ulrich ran at the automatic doors so fast he almost slammed into them before they opened. Running to the desk the receptionist told him third floor so he jumped into the nearest elevator and rode to the third floor.

Turning the wrong way when he ran out, Ulrich pivoted back and ran the other way till he heard her screaming. It sounded like she was in pain. Ulrich saw Odd and Jeremie with a baby carrier on Odd's lap outside who pointed to the room the screaming was coming from. Without a moments hesitation he ran into the room and saw her.

Sweat was dripping from her forehead, her hair was dangling in front of her face as she groaned and cried. Her swollen belly rose from the paper gown she wore, her legs propped up, the doctor telling her to push when the next contraction hit.

"I'm sorry, the one day my phone dies," Ulrich said and stood next to her as she grabbed his hand and crushed it.

"You're late," Danielle said from across Aelita, holding her other hand.

"I need a big push here Aelita…push," the doctor said and Aelita groaned as she crushed Ulrich and Danielle's hands as the room was suddenly filled with a new voice.

The crying filled the room as the doctor wrapped the baby and let Aelita hold it before taking the baby to be checked and cleaned. After only a few minutes she came back with the baby girl and handed her to Aelita.

"Congrats," Danielle said and Aelita looked at Danielle.

"It's your sister," Aelita said.

"Funny," Danielle said, looked over at Ulrich, "I'll let you have some privacy."

Danielle left the room and closed the door behind her. Hiroki had just arrived, him stopping to kiss Danielle as everyone looked at her for an update.

"It's a girl," Danielle said and everyone smiled. Danielle picked up the baby in the baby carrier and held him.

"Hey little guy," Danielle said as Hiroki kissed his son on the head then kissed his wife.

"He's been pretty quiet, even with the background noise," Odd said and Danielle thanked Odd for watching him.

"Is it weird having a sister who's twenty eight years younger than you?" Jeremie asked.

"Probably not as weird as having a grandkid the same age as your kid," Danielle said and looked at her son and kissed his cheeks.

"It's hard to believe you created that body," Jeremie said and Danielle grinned.

"You're damn right I created it, lost that baby fat in only four months," Danielle said with a grin and snuggled her son more, making him giggle. Hiroki's phone rang so he stepped away and answered it.

"It's a girl," Hiroki said to answer Elliot's question before he asked.

"Is that Elliot?" Danielle asked and Hiroki nodded, "Ask him if him and Milly can baby sit for us." Hiroki asked and then nodded.

"Talk to you later," Hiroki said and hung up.

Less than an hour later Aelita was sitting in her bed, rocking her baby back and forth as she soundly slept in her arms. Everyone smiled and laughed as they all talked for hours until one by one everyone had to leave to do their various tasks. Yumi didn't stop by but she did send them a text to express her congratulations to the couple. Aelita thanked her even though she knew Yumi could have made it in person.

Hiroki took his son home as Danielle stayed behind with Ulrich and Aelita. The girls talked while Ulrich went down stairs to get some coffee.

"I thought Yumi would show up," Aelita said and Danielle sighed.

"It's not your fault. It's been a long time, but she still hasn't let go," Danielle said and Aelita sadly nodded then looked at her baby.

"Was it worth it?" Danielle asked and Aelita looked up at her, "Fifteen years ago, before you kissed Ulrich. Before you kissed him you said 'here's hoping it's worth it.' Was it?"

"Yumi stayed around, even pretended to be my friend. We never really recovered. The only reason I feel any guilt, is because she ensures us she's fine, but she's not," Aelita said and Danielle looked at the baby then back up at Aelita.

"Was it worth it?" Danielle asked, "You never did answer the question."

"I know it was worth it, because I think about who I was before I made that decision, and I'm happier now than I was then," Aelita said and they heard someone stop at the door. They both thought it was Ulrich before they looked and saw it was Yumi.

"It was worth it," Yumi said to her, then walked into the room and sat on the bed next to the Aelita's feet.

"Yumi, I've been trying to have this conversation with you from the moment you found out. You've always backed away from it," Aelita said.

"I know, I'm scared to have this conversation. I've been scared because the only way I see it ending is with us not being friends anymore," Yumi said and smiled at the baby girl.

"She's beautiful," Yumi said and Aelita smiled.

"That would never happen," Aelita said.

"How are we supposed to know that?" Yumi asked, "My entire romantic history is me smoothering men away because I'm worried he'll leave me. All because you made the first move on a boy I felt like I called dibs on. Instead of waiting for them to come to me, I go straight to them, because I'm afraid someone will jump on him first.

"Even though I'm so happy for you, and I do mean that with all the sincerity in the world, I feel like it should be me in that bed holding a baby. Why did that never go away?"

"Because, we never talked about it," Aelita said, "We never had that conversation. It was never resolved because you treated the conversation the same way you did Ulrich prior to me. You avoided it. I was scared too. I felt like I had betrayed you, but I was ready to feel the full brunt of that fight because I was certain in the end I made the right choice."

"You did. Look at you left hand. Look in your arms," Yumi said and Aelita smiled.

"I'm a mom," Aelita said and Yumi giggled as she tried to not show tears, "Don't hide them."

"I'm not crying," Yumi mumbled.

"Danielle, can you take her, Yumi and I need to have a fight," Aelita said and Danielle took the baby and left the room.

The fight lasted for two hours. Fifteen years of pent up anger, emotions, and feelings poured out of Yumi like a barrage of bullets. Aelita was ready to face all of it. She always had been. Some of it was calm and polite. Parts of it erupted into shouts and cries. The volume in the room changed every few minutes. At one point it was so loud, some of the nurses and administrative staff leaned into the hallway to hear.

Ulrich had arrived with coffee not to long into the fight and sat next to Danielle. Placing his coffee on the table he rocked his baby girl back and forth as he heard Yumi shout again.

"She's been holding that back for fifteen years," Danielle said and Ulrich sighed and looked over at her.

"Things okay with Hiroki?" Ulrich asked.

"Fighting a little more than usual because of Parker, but good fighting. You know what I mean?" Danielle asked.

"A fight that actually ends with a real resolution and sex?" Ulrich asked and Danielle nodded.

"You and Aelita okay?" Danielle asked.

"Never better," Ulrich answered, "Last week in the peak of her hormones, she was yelling at me for breaking up with her before college."

"You mean the three years of wasted time because long distance wouldn't work?" Danielle said and Ulrich, "It's not the distance, it's the feelings."

"So I learned," Ulrich said with a slight chuckle, "I never did cheat though."

"Technically if you did, it wasn't cheating," Danielle said and Ulrich looked at his daughter and couldn't hide a smile, "Got a name yet?"

"We fought about that as well. It's a battle between Rachel and Winter. Winter is my choice," Ulrich said and Danielle smiled.

"Why that?"

"It was Winter when she kissed me," Ulrich said and the door opened and Yumi stepped out and smiled at Ulrich before politely leaving. They watched as she walked to the elevator and turned toward them as she waited for it to arrive.

"Go with Winter!" Yumi shouted as the elevator opened, and she stepped back into "Don't let her win. You'll regret it for the rest of your life." And the doors shut.

* * *

**Finally uploaded the last chapter. Deleted Scenes coming soon.**


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